The iPhone captures great video quality, and it's possible to extract a high-resolution photo from a split-second of video, but Apple doesn't make it as easy as it should be. With slow-motion, time-lapse, and 4K resolution videos possible, recording in fine detail and immortalizing special moments is really easy. Often a particular frame of a video will be interesting enough to make a memorable picture and that is when the lack of a photo saving option becomes frustrating. For whatever reason, Apple doesn't offer a way to save a high-quality picture when paused on a video.
One solution is to simply capture a screenshot and while this works, the resolution only matches the screen resolution. For an iPhone 14 Pro Max, that's 1,290 x 2,796 pixels, which is 3.6 megapixels, not a high-quality image, considering that a 4K video is 3,840 × 2,160 or 8.3 megapixels. At best, a screenshot is less than half the resolution. An iPhone SE has a one-megapixel screen, resulting in less than one-eighth the sharpness that's possible. Thankfully, there's an app for that, in fact, several apps. Two that are highly recommended are the free Frame Grabber and the low-cost, one-time purchase Video 2 Photo HD.
Best Apps For Turning iPhone Videos Into Photos
The Frame Grabber app is an automatic 'yes' for anyone that wants a quick and easy solution to extract a picture from a video. After installing the free app, select a video from the iPhone's Photos library, pause it or drag the slider to find the right frame, then tap the share button to send to social media or save as a photo. There are a few options for format and metadata, but it's very clean and direct in getting the job done.
While Video 2 Photo HD costs $2.99, it's a one-time purchase and a more full-featured app. What makes it unique is its ability to save multiple sequential photos from a selected portion of a video. There are also more file format options and the user can crop the photos within the app. Both apps have been updated recently, contain no ads, and don't require a subscription, which is the way most utility apps really should work. Again, the only real option for iPhone owners that don't want to install an app is to take a low-resolution screenshot.
How To Take A Photo While Recording A Video On iPhone
While the iPhone doesn't offer the ability to extract photos from a video after recording, it is possible to do this while recording a video. It's a useful feature that lets users capture stills of memorable moments, but it does come with drawbacks. To take a photo while recording a video, open the camera app and begin recording a video as usual. While the video is being recorded, press the white shutter button to the right of the red recording button, and a still will be captured.
The camera doesn't provide any indication that a photo has been captured, although there is some haptic feedback. Once done recording the video, open the Photos app and the stills should appear along with the recorded video. The only downside of this is the resolution. Photos are captured in the resolution the video is being recorded in. If recording in 4K resolution, the photo quality will be better, but if recording in standard 1080p, it will be much lower. In addition, users won't be able to adjust focus or use any other camera tools while taking a photo during a video recording. So while this isn't the best feature if photo quality is a concern, it's a handy tool to grab photos from videos on an iPhone.