How to Take Pictures With a Webcam

This the way I capture images from my older yet still functioning Microsolutions webcam and iPhoto Plus 4 or the Camera and Scanner Wizard on XP--it may work with other software and new versions of Photo Plus, but this is how I've been doing it. It should be pretty simple.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• webcam
• Ulead Photo Plus 4 or Windows XP
• computer

1. Make sure your Web cam is hooked up to the USB port on the back of the computer and installed appropriately and the computer is on and ready.
2. From the start menu, left click on control menu (these are the steps for XP yours might be a little different). Then on the dialog box that pops up, left click on the "Printers and other Hardware" option.
   (If you don't have XP but have iPhoto Plus, skip to step 7.
3. Another dialog box will pop up. Left click on the scanners and cameras option to bring another dialog box up. From there double click with the left mouse key on the icon for your camera. This will bring up the "Scanner and Camera Wizard."
4. Left click the next key to get to the image capture screen, position the camera and left click on the word "Take Picture" below the image. The image will show up on the scrolling menu next to the image capture part of the box. Select it (left click the small box next to the image to get a check mark in the box) or use the select all option to get all pictures, then left click the next key.
5. Select the picture destination from the drop down menus that appear and hit the next key to save. The next dialog box will ask what is to be done with the pictures. Select the option in front of the correct choice and hit the next key to bring up the final screen.
6. From here the picture location will be able to be opened. Left click on finish if finished or select the other appropriate choice. The images should be on the computer and ready to work with.
   If there is no scanner and camera wizard available try the next option.
7. Open iPhoto Plus and left click on the file option. From the drop down menu, scroll down to acquire and select source. Left click on select source.
8. From the dialog box that pops up, select your particular camera by left clicking on the down arrow key and scroll downward until your camera is found. Select the camera from the list by left clicking on it and then left click the ok button. (If your camera is already selected, this step may be unnecessary).
9. Now left click on the file button again select acquire and then left click on image. From the box that comes up make sure the radial button--the round area before the options--before the word "image" has a dark circle in it indicating it is selected. Then left click on the acquire button. (Read tips for other options).
10. A dialog box will appear that is titled "acquire pictures from video". Position the camera for what picture is desired then left click on the capture button.
11. The picture will appear in a drop down menu on the other side of the video feed. Scroll down if need be and select the picture or left click the "select all" button if you would like all of them and then left click get pictures.
12. Now all the pictures should appear in iPhoto Plus. Save them to your computer with the save option or edit them at your leisure.

Tips & Warnings

• It also works to scroll down to the import option on the file menu and left click on video capture. Then a dialog box will show up with a video area on it. Left click on the get image button from here and it will put the captured image directly into the program.
• How this works depends on your web cam. Your web cam may have automatically come with software that is enabled at the click of the button on it and may have it's own way to save images. I could only post this way as the type of web cam was not posted.