Picture the possibilities: printing 8K video

When might it be useful to print 8K video frames?

"I'd normally just shoot stills at a wedding," says Sanjay. "The only time I've shot video is for a hybrid product we produce, which merges photos into short video clips and back again. I've been pulling 4K stills to do that sort of thing, but never really to print. The resolution was too low and there were some limitations in terms of being able to process and grade the images.

"Now, the option of 8K resolution and the advanced colour science and image quality of the Canon EOS R5 is opening up new possibilities. Being able to pull and then print a video still gives me an opportunity to work quickly and capture things I might normally miss. During the ceremony, for example, when you know that things are going to be a little bit frantic, you can simply hit the video record button. Even during the portraits, if you're doing anything that involves movement and motion, you could either burst through that moment in stills and generate a lot of 45MP photos, or you could shoot a video clip and stop it at the point where you want to extract a frame.

"I'm due to shoot a surprise proposal in a London restaurant and I'm planning to lock off one of my Canon EOS R5 bodies on a tripod near the couple and set the camera to record 8K video while I shoot stills from a different position. As well as giving me the option of creating a full clip, I'll be able to pull stills from the video. I know I won't miss any of the emotions or expressions, as I can trust the Canon EOS R5's autofocus to lock onto the couple's faces."

Do you need to use different camera settings to print frames from video?

"You need to make sure you're working within the same settings as you would do when you're shooting stills so that you can maintain consistency, but you have to approach the exposure triangle slightly differently. Once you've set an aperture which gives you the depth of field that you're looking for, you're left with ISO as the exposure control – shutter speed is simply a technical requirement when you're shooting video.

"Typically, you have to use a shutter speed that's twice the video frame rate in order to produce believable motion blur. But if I'm shooting 8K at 30 frames per second, a shutter speed of 1/60 sec is more than workable. I know some people might not be able to hold the camera still at 1/60 sec, but the Canon EOS R5's in-body image stabilizer (IBIS) means you can get away with it. The stabilization is so good that the footage looks like it's been produced on a gimbal.

"If something is happening very quickly, then of course you'll get some blur, but what you're essentially getting is a 30fps 8K burst mode combined with the Canon EOS R5's eerily accurate autofocus – it's like a radar-guided missile.

"You could also set up the camera to record at a faster shutter speed in order to get a sharper still frame. The motion blur will look less romantic when the video is played back, but that's irrelevant if you're recording the video just to pull stills."