Export frame as high quality image (72 ppi only?)

[Gustavo S.]

Hello,

I've been experimenting with saving frames from movies but it seems they can only be exported at 72 ppi, making it the same as using a screen scrap basically.  So the question is whether one can save high quality images for printing.  I've imported a movie into APP that was extracted from a DVD, and saved in mp4 format.

Thanks!

Gustavo

Santa Fe, NM

[Ann Bens]

You cannot export any higher then the width and hight of the timeline.

Dpi means nothing to video. If your sequence is 1920x1080 so will you snapshot be.

If you need it for printing you to need to perform some magic with Photoshop.

[John T Smith]

72dpi is DVD resolution... Link to DVD Demystified FAQ http://forums.adobe.com/thread/544206

[the_wine_snob]

Gustavo,

As others have stated, all one gets from video will be pixels x pixles.

Even that 72 ppi is a bit of a misnomer, in that it was chosen based on the then-popular computer monitor display ppi.

Hunt

[Guest]

I agree with Bill and Ann. PPI stands for pixels per inch, which basically means number of pixels to real world inches, and 72 is an old resolution as Bill pointed out.

[Gustavo S.]

I know that ppi is pixels-per-inch.  I guess the answer from all of you should have been either:

a) you do not know if a frame can be exported at any higher than a monitor's resolution; or

b) no, one cannot get any higher resolution

I will continue to search the web.  Thanks,

Gustavo

[Steven L. Gotz · Accepted solution]

Gustavo,

Let's go about this a different way. You are using words and we are using words and I don't think they mean the same thing to you as they do to us. We are talking about the number of pixels available, and I have a feeling you are looking to create more pixels for what you would call a higher resolution. Stick with me for a moment and I think I can clear this up.

You have a video from a DVD. You brought it into Premiere Pro. Let's assume for the moment that it is a standard definition DVD, so you either imported it as 720X480 or you imported it as 640X480. You didn't say, so those numbers could be wrong. But let's use 640X480 as an example since it uses square pixels and therefore easier to do the math.

Export the 640X480 image by clicking on the Export Frame button (the little camera) and then open that file in Photoshop. Under Image / Image Size you will see a window that looks like this:

To a video person, the important part of the window shown is the Pixel Dimensions. We don't care about anything else. The resolution of 72 pixels per inch is incidental to us.

However, if I wanted to print the image, things get interesting. As you can see in the window, if I print at 72 pixels per inch, I get a picture that is over 8X6 inches. The problem is that nobody prints at 72 ppi. We print at 300 ppi or more.

So what happens. Instead of a nice large print, we get something much smaller as shown below.

We basically get a large postage stamp.

What you might be asking, however, is how to get a picture that is 640X480 pixels enlarged to a size that would print that image, using 300 ppi, at the 8X6 size. The word for that is not resolution exactly. Not to us. The word for that is upscale. Make it bigger. More pixels. Pull pixels out of the thin air and assign them to places in the image.

The answer to your question is probably  quite simple. No, you can't get a higher resolution unless you upscale it in Premiere Pro, and that is not the right program for the task.

Upscale it in Photoshop. Or, purchase a third party application designed to upscale frame grabs into something you can print at a decent size.

[Gustavo S.]

Steven,

Thanks very much for taking the time with your detailed description.  As you might have guessed, I come from the photo and graphic design world.  I am very new to video and APP.  This is what I needed to know.  Thanks again.

Best,

Gustavo

Santa Fe, NM

[Steven L. Gotz]

My pleasure. I just bought a DSLR and I am venturing into the photo side of things. I have been doing a lot of research myself lately.

[Jim_Simon]

I guess the answer from all of you should have been

b) no, one cannot get any higher resolution

That's exactly what Ann said in post 1.