Best screen capture settings for printing?

[waycooljr]

I hope I'm not a pain by asking so many questions these days. This Vegas thing is got me all worked up. I love the software but I just can't seem to find enough time to learn it.

I'm just wondering whats the best proceedure/settings for capturing a frame grab that willl look good once printed.

Ray

 

[scharky]

Re: Best screen capture settings for printing?

Depends on what you decide looks "good" printed. As I work in a photography studio with a $150,000 Noritsu, I have found that people have differing views of what "good" looks like. First off, your 72dpi 720x480 or 872x480 animorphic screen grab from your dvx is going to be approximately 2.18in wide by 1.2 inches tall. If that is as big as you wish to print, it will look "great" at this size. I am guessing, however, that you would like to print larger than that, and yes, that is with the resolution at 400dpi (native for any Noritsu Photo center). IF you printed on your home printer, lets say at 300 dpi your native size would be 2.9inx1.6in, a little bit bigger. The reason I keep saying "native size" is that is the actual size of the photo without any interpolation. I have people email me tiny little photos all the time and say, "can you print this as a 4x6 or 5x7?" I say "sure, but it'l look like crap!". Basically, the Dvx is a video camera, not a still "photo" camera, and even if it were, like many of the consumer models are today, they still look like crap to print from. So the best advice I can give you is one, get a good 35mm SLR or a nice digital @ at least 3MP and have someone take pictures as you shoot you video. IF you can't do that, print real small as blowing it up in photoshop will look bad. Three, use a program called S-spline to blow up the photos, slightly larger, you can experiment to see what gives you the best results. As far as the best way to capture a screen grab, make sure that your settings are set to "best" and then click move the timeline marker until the screen you want is displayed, then hit the little button that looks like a disc right above your preview window. That is the best way that I know to make a screen grab.
Happy hunting to you.