Stillbilder

Stillbilder, or still images, are single, static photographs. In film, television, and media contexts, a stillbild typically refers to a single frame selected from video, film, or a digital sequence, used to illustrate, promote, or document the source material.

Historically, production stills were created on set by photographers to document the making of a film and to provide publicity images for studios and magazines. Publicity stills are released to press and used in marketing, reviews, and catalogs, while production stills serve archival and production-monitoring purposes. With the shift to digital workflows, stillbilder can be captured directly with cameras or produced by extracting frames from a digital master.

Creation methods vary: on-set still photography produces high-quality images during filming, while frame grabs (or frame captures) are stillbilder extracted from video or digital files after shooting. Digital asset management often tags these images with metadata such as title, scene, timecode, and licensing terms. Typical formats include JPEG, TIFF, and RAW, with attention to resolution, aspect ratio, color space, and fidelity to the source material.

Rights and licensing are essential considerations. Stills may be subject to copyright, model releases, usage rights, and credit lines. Clearances differ for marketing, press, educational, or archival use, and rights holders may include studios, distributors, or photographers.

Uses of stillbilder include film and television marketing, press kits, scholarly analysis, restoration work, and editorial illustration. They also serve as reference material for visual effects, design, and archival preservation. See also: production stills, publicity stills, frame grab.