The author presents a tool for explorating social situations : freezing on the frame. She evokes its various technical and methodological limits and shows its interest for a survey inspired by action sociology. By taking into account the temporality of human actions the image can be more than illustrative and become an analysis tool. By passing indiscriminately from an animated image to a static one video recording permits a selection of filmed sequences and a multiple reading of the observed contexts. It helps to follow minutely the actors’ activities and to show the difference between group norms and individual norms.