You can pull still frame images from video that are very high resolution when you use the right combination of gear and settings. In this video, portrait photographer and YouTuber Miguel Quiles shows you how to do it. During a rather unconventional portrait session, Quiles uses the Sony Alpha 7R V and Sony 50mm f/1.2 G Master to shoot 8K video that can create 33.1 megapixel still images. Watch below and keep reading to see how he gets such high resolution imagery from video. See more videos like this one on the Alpha Universe YouTube Channel.

Product Preview – In This Article You'll Find:
-Sony Alpha 7R V
-Sony 50mm f/1.2 G Master

Why Shoot Video Instead Of Stills?

Why would you want to pull images from a video, instead of just shooting photos in the first place? Quiles explains that there are a lot of advantages. “Oftentimes you’re doing a photo shoot, the model or the person you’re photographing is vibing, they’re moving, they’re posing. Maybe they blink, and that’s when you happen to push the shutter button and take the photograph. It’s very annoying as a photographer because you always feel like you missed that prime moment to take that photograph."

He continues, “Well, if you’re shooting a video, you don’t have that problem. You can go ahead and start recording and the person can kind of flow and move and pose. And if they blink it’s not a problem because you’re shooting at, in this case, I’m shooting 8K at 24 frames per second. So you have 24 individual frames every single second. I just have to go to either when the person stops blinking, or just before they start the blink, and I have an image. So it’s very cool.”

Running A Portrait Video Shoot

To get started with the video photo shoot, Quiles puts his Sony Alpha 7R V and Sony 50mm f/1.2 G Master on a tripod for stable footage. With his settings at 1/200-sec, f/1.8 and ISO 200, he also uses a constant light. “Which is really great,” he says, “because you can take photos and you can take stills all together, all at the same time. There might be some jobs that you might get at some point that will call for something like this, which is really great.”

Throughout the video shoot, Quiles instructs the subject to shift from one pose into the next as he’s recording. He lets the camera roll around 20 seconds at a time to get a nice variety of poses. Once you’ve actually captured the video, Quiles shows how you can play it back on the camera to choose which still frames you want. You can go through the video on your camera to find the exact frame, then you can click to process it. You can also do this in post-production.

“This is just another way to conduct a photo shoot,” Quiles explains. “And again, it’s really great if you have somebody that's asking you to shoot video and also needs stills. You could essentially just do a photo shoot with video, have a fantastic looking video in 8K and then also pull individual stills from that. And now you’re getting paid twice as much, right, because you can offer stills and video all in one shoot.”

See more videos like this one on the Alpha Universe YouTube Channel.