How to turn a Webcam shot into a photo?

[ms simba]

I would like to take a Port Canaveral webcam shot of the ship that is at the pier and put it into my Word document as a photo.

 

I have tried CTRL+PrtScn but the copied webcam shot shows things moving and if you try to move down, up or sideways, so does the webcam shot.

 

I also tried using Adobe Photoshop but I was unable to get a stationary photo either.

 

Any suggestions?

[R. Wethereyet]

A lot of wecams will let you save a snapshot either by right clicking on the picture or by clicking an option on the screen somewhere. Unfortunately, this site does not :-(

 

My suggestion would be to search for a "video downloader" and then capture a portion of the streaming video. From that you can "save a frame" using a photo editing program.

 

Sorry for the discombobulated way of getting your "snapshot" but some webmasters don't make it easy :-)

[ms simba]

I will try to find a "video uploader" and try to capture my webcam shot this way. Thanks for the information.

[odblnt]

I would like to take a Port Canaveral webcam shot of the ship that is at the pier and put it into my Word document as a photo.

 

I have tried CTRL+PrtScn but the copied webcam shot shows things moving and if you try to move down, up or sideways, so does the webcam shot.

 

I also tried using Adobe Photoshop but I was unable to get a stationary photo either.

 

Any suggestions?

 

I just tried Photoshop Elements and it worked. What I did is just hit regular Print Screne and then in Elements clicked on New - Image from Clipboard.

[YoHoHo]

There are several utilities that can help. I use a freeware program called "Gadwin Screenprint" from gadwin dot com. I'd attach a screen shot of their "About" window but ironically I can't becasue I gather it thinks I am in "control mode" to set preferences and the like and not "action mode" so pessing Prt Scrn does nothing :}

 

Anyway I like it a lot. It can be configured on the fly to grab the current window or the entire Desktop or a just rectangluar area on the screen you select and for output can save to file or clipboard and in different formats or straight out to a printer. Very easy to use and does its job well.

[ms simba]

Not having any luck with Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Here is what I am doing.

 

Have the Port Canaveral Webcam running.

 

(1) - Hit Ctrl + PrtScn (this copies the desktop image to the clipboard)

 

(2) - Open up Photoshop and click on "File" and then "New" and press the "OK" button.

 

(3) - This brings up a screen that says "New" with an image size equivalent to the one I put on the clipboard. I then press "OK"

 

(4) - This brings up a screen called "Untitled" to put my screen shot in.

 

(5) - I then go to the "Edit" menu and click on "Paste" the only option I am given.

 

(6) The screen shot then comes up very nicely of the Port Canaveral Webcam shot.

 

Now is when the problems begin. I can save this picture as a .PSD or flatten the layers and save it as a .jpg. However, I cannot crop this screen shot successfully. It moves the picture to an unwanted area. I know longer see the picture of Port Canaveral in its entirety. And if I try to insert this picture into Microsoft Word, the picture moves all over the place if I move up or down in the document.

 

So if you use Photoshop Elements (what version?) are you able to crop this picture and then insert it into a Word document without the picture moving all over?

[odblnt]

Not having any luck with Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Here is what I am doing.

 

Now is when the problems begin. I can save this picture as a .PSD or flatten the layers and save it as a .jpg. However, I cannot crop this screen shot successfully. It moves the picture to an unwanted area. I know longer see the picture of Port Canaveral in its entirety. And if I try to insert this picture into Microsoft Word, the picture moves all over the place if I move up or down in the document.

 

So if you use Photoshop Elements (what version?) are you able to crop this picture and then insert it into a Word document without the picture moving all over?

 

Sorry this has taken so long to respond to, but life has been busy.

 

I'm running Windows XP, Photoshop Elements 6 and Office (Word) 2007 (the new one).

 

It seems that you have it down as far as getting your screen capture to a jpg file. I had no problems using the crop tool to crop out the unwanted areas.

 

As far as placing a jpg in a Word document and having it stay put... I'm not sure anymore of where the commands are in earlier versions of Word, but you need to have some of your text already in place. Then insert the photo and resize it (drag on one of the corners while holding down the shift key to preserve aspect ratio), and drag it to where you want the photo to be.

 

Now comes the fun part... Go to "Page Layout" tab on Word 2007 (I suspect formatting in older versions), click on the photo to make it active and then click on "Text Wrapping" to open up the options there. First, I click on "Tight" or what ever you want to do your initial wrap and then go to "More Layout Options" enable you to click on "Absolute position" which will lock it in position and cure it from jumping around (according to theory).

 

Try this and let me know what happens.

 

If you are using an earlier version of Word, let me know and I'll go over to DSIL's place to try on her machine.