Snapshot vs rendered file

[Donald Blake]

Hi Everyone,

My question his why are the colors faded out when i save a snapshot from the preview window of Vegas? my settings are set to best and full, I even matched the output frame size... when i render the video it comes out pretty good but when i look at the snapshot it's obvious that the colors are faded. Is there anyone with the same problem?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

If you're suggesting that:
1. you've put a still on the timeline
2. you capture that still
3. you compare the original still to the captured still;

Bear in mind that you're seeing the captured still at a max resolution of 720 x 480, *and* it's compressed to a DV codec, *and* has a different colorspace of 4:1:1 vs the 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 that your camera may have original shot.

If I've misunderstood your process, please clarify.

[Donald Blake]

Let me clarify then, i just took some stills to show some main key frames of the video for a website, i didn't insert them in the timeline and like i said the colors are faded out compared to the rendered video and even to the original footage. so i would have to edit each snapshot i take wich is very time consuming...

If i were to add stills to my timeline, instead of really adding stills i tought of adding a video envelope/event velocity and dropping it down to 0% on the keyframe to get the exact same look as the video when i render it out, is this a good idea?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

So you captured stills from existing video; that makes a bit more sense.
The screen captures are likely suffering from the JPEG codec. Additionally, if you have the fit to fill vs a straight best/full, it will compromise the shot.
Capture the stills as png and turn off the "Scale Video" option in the preview window, recapture as Best/Full, and see if that fixes your problem.