Video Frame Grab on iPhone

Video Frame Grab on iPhone: a reader asks…

• I have an iPhone 14 Pro (fully updated) and took some videos with it. What I’d like to do is make some still photos from those videos. How do I do that?

It’s actually pretty easy to do this. Open the Apple Photos app and navigate to the video you want to use. If you are looking for multiple videos, rather than eyeballing the entire camera roll, you can go straight to the videos. At the bottom of the camera roll are two buttons, one for your Library (aka the camera roll), and one for Collections. Tap the Collections icon, scroll down the list until you see Media Types, then tap the Videos icon.

Now find and tap the video you want to open. Scroll to the point where you want to grab your screenshot. Now tap the 3 horizontal dots at the top-right, then at the bottom of the menu, tap “Save Video Frame as Photo”. Boom, you’re done.

That’s fast and easy, but you may find it a little hard to get to the exact point in the video you want to capture as a screenshot. If you want more control, there’s an extra step. With the video open, tap the Edit button (icon between the delete trash can and the circled i, looks like three horizontal lines with little circles on each line). That will download the video file (if it isn’t already downloaded) and give you an expanded scrolling mechanism with a horizontal white line. You can drag that white line left or right to get to the exact frame you want to see.

Just as above, tap the 3 horizontal dots at the top-right, then at the bottom of the menu, tap “Save Video Frame as Photo”. You’ll now see the screenshot in your photo library. Please note that the photo will be at the bottom of your camera roll, since you just took that shot (unlike the date you shot the video).

Generally, I like to organize my photos into albums on my camera roll. You can create new albums easily right from your camera roll. Tap the Select menu item at the top-right of the main Library view, tap each photo you want to save in an album, tap the 3 horizontal dots at the top, and tap the Add To menu item. On the resulting menu, you can either tap New Album or New Shared Album to create a new album (for yourself, or for you and others, respectively). You can also tap Album or Shared Album to add those photos to an existing album.

There are so many things you can do besides just taking photos and videos. Your Apple Photos app has plenty of options and flexibility. You can share photos, videos, or albums with anyone, even if they have a non-Apple smartphone. There are plenty of tutorials on how to use the Photos app on YouTube, as well as on Apple Support, and on excellent third-party websites like Apple Insider. Have fun with your photos and videos!