How to Take Pictures With a Webcam

Take self-portraits with your webcam.

A webcam supplements communication with family and friends. It's often used for video chatting. But you could use your webcam to take pictures, as well.

Things You'll Need

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

Instructions

1. Make sure your webcam is connected to the USB port of your computer, installed appropriately, and the computer is on and ready.

2. Navigate to the "Start" menu and type "webcam" (without quotes) in the Search field. If you've previously installed webcam software, the program should appear in the search results. Double-click the selection to launch the webcam application.

3. From the webcam dialog, select the "Quick Capture" icon (the example is for Logitech software, but other applications have similar functions with different names).

4. Position the camera and person or object that you want to photo capture. Select the desired resolution from the drop-down menu. Click "Take Photo" to take a photograph.

5. Browse to the picture destination to view your photo. Now that your photo is stored on your computer, you can email or print it.

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.

References

• Microsoft Home Magazine: Webcam Basics - How Do They Work?