Pick another frame of a 'Living Image' taken by Lumia[930] Camera app. How can I access the preimages?

[Windows Central Question]

Pick another frame of a 'Living Image' taken by Lumia[930] Camera app.

I have tried to capture several moments with the 'living images' option turned on, but what usually happens is that the 'preimages' look clear, while the 'frozen' image is rather unclear. I'd like to get a hold on the frames that are recorded before the actual photo is shot.

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

Re: Pick another frame of a 'Living Image' taken by Lumia[930] Camera app.

For living images that's not possible (as I know), my sister has 640xl and it's really annoying!!

 

[Harrie-S]

Re: Pick another frame of a 'Living Image' taken by Lumia[930] Camera app.

Not possible. (You could however copy the living image file to your pc. Remove the last extension so it ends with .mp4 and then try to grab a image. But it will be a low resolution image).
You could use some apps to improve your "unclear" image. (But basically the picture quality of the 930 is good)
Or switch off living image and take a few pictures.
The image capture can be done but then you need to record a 4k video and use the app Lumia Moments to grab a frame but you only get a "decent" picture if there is not to much movement in the video.

 

[Harrie-S]

Re: Pick another frame of a 'Living Image' taken by Lumia[930] Camera app.

For living images that's not possible (as I know), my sister has 640xl and it's really annoying!!

So one more female with a windows phone.��

 

[RumoredNow]

Re: Pick another frame of a 'Living Image' taken by Lumia[930] Camera app.

Move to Rich Capture in Lumia Camera 5. Rich Capture does a couple of things.

When the flash is on it allows you to toggle through the captures and select the image or customize a blend of the captures with a slider bar.

When the flash is off Rich Capture makes a bracketed shot and produces an HDR jpg. But if you shoot 5MP.jpg + 16MP.dng the three .dng exposures are on your phone and you can choose which to open and edit in Rawer.

A closer look at Rich Capture, the best feature on Lumia Camera | Windows Central

 

[DanielSander]

Re: Pick another frame of a 'Living Image' taken by Lumia[930] Camera app.

Thanks alot, this really helped. It was as easy as finding the short video file in the Microsoft Files app on the phone and then just copy and save it as '.mp4'. The mp4 file could then be opened in Lumia Moments for editing and picking best frame.

Additional idea: Rename a picture file so that it can be opened in Lumia Refocus?

 

[Mikescott140]

I cannot get this method to work.

Please, can somebody help me extract a frame from a living image photo please?
My wife took several photos of our newborn baby, but the end frame is terrible.
In the frame preceding this, there are 2 or 3 that are perfect!

Assistance very much appreciated.
(seems like an oversight - no?)

 

[Iulian Luca]

Please, can somebody help me extract a frame from a living image photo please?
My wife took several photos of our newborn baby, but the end frame is terrible.
In the frame preceding this, there are 2 or 3 that are perfect!

First you have to connect your phone using the USB cable to your PC. Under Windows OS the drivers will install automatically. Your Lumia 930 will mount as an external USB Memory stick and you'll be able to access it as one. Double click on it's name then go to Pictures, then Camera Roll then look for your image JPG file and for any JPG file you will have 2 or 3 other files with the same name, but different extensions, something like this:

1) - WP_20150924_15_05_55_Pro.jpg (5MP jpeg file - Pro it's from using the Lumia Camera Pro app to capture the image)
2) - WP_20150924_15_05_55_Pro_hires.jpg (it's the 16MP jpeg file - because that's what I've choose in camera settings)
3) - WP_20150924_15_05_55_Pro.mp4.thm (this is the short movie file that contain the Living Images animation you see on your phone)
4) - WP_20150924_15_05_55_Pro.mp4.tnl (this file you can ignore)

Now what you need, is to copy the WP_20150924_15_05_55_Pro.mp4.thm from the Camera Roll to your PC
then remove the .thm extension by simply rename the file - the file will transform into: WP_20150924_15_05_55_Pro.mp4 - this is a movie file.
Open it with any movie player or video editor program, play it frame by frame, stop on the frame you like and save it as image. Any modern video player (VLC, Media Player Classic, QuickTime and so on) will know how to do that.

Remember, the frame size (final image size) will be smaller (less details) than the final JPG file since it's a video compressed file intended only to be seen on your mobile phone display.

Good luck!

Iulian