The present application is directed to new methods for automatically determining several characteristics of frames in a video sequence and automatically recommending or preparing image output products based on those frame characteristics. In some embodiments, motion characteristics of particular image frames are calculated, and those motion characteristics are automatically used to prepare or recommend image output products suitable for the motion characteristics of the frames. In other embodiments, facial, audio, and overall image quality are assessed and used to automatically recommend or prepare image output products. In still other embodiments, image frames in a video sequence are analyzed for various user-specified characteristics, which characteristics are then used to automatically recommend or prepare image output products.