Pictures from a YouTube video?

October 6, 2008 9:17 AM

Lets say I'm watching a video on YouTube and I pause it at a part that I think would make a good picture, a good still shot (e.g. it's a video of my son singing and at one point he smiles beautifully and I want a picture of him smiling). Is there a way to make a copy of that still shot and post it on a website?
posted by bluekrauss to computers & internet (9 answers total)

Alt+PrintScreen-->Paint?
posted by phunniemee at 9:25 AM on October 6, 2008

Screen capture. On Windows, hit the "print screen" button, then paste into Paint (or a better image program).

Mac: Command-Shift 3 for the whole screen or Command-Shift 4 to select a part of the screen. It will be saved as Picture1.png on your desktop.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:26 AM on October 6, 2008

On a mac, Shift-Cloverleaf-4 and drag the rectangle around the image you want to save. It will appear on your desktop.
posted by zippy at 9:26 AM on October 6, 2008

The easiest way I can think of would be to take a screenshot. If you are on a PC just hit PrintScreen and then open up MSPaint or Gimp or Photoshop and paste the image then crop it. If you are on a Mac use Apple-Shift-3 or Apple-Shift-4 and a screenshot will pop up on your desktop.

Easiest place to host and post images online in imageshack, doesn't even require a login. Alternatively, put it up on flickr or photobucket.
posted by sophist at 9:27 AM on October 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

PC or Mac? Because if it's a PC, Print Screen will put the full screen to the clipboard. The go into paint, hit Paste, select what you want to save, copy it, then open a new Paint and paste. Save and post.

(Obviously if you have other image editing software such as Photoshop you can paste that way and use the crop tool.)
posted by ALongDecember at 9:27 AM on October 6, 2008

On a PC, you can also use the nice little utility Zapgrab to take screenshots of particular areas of the screen. On Mac, there's also a load of Dashboard widgets that allow you to do by-area screenshots.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:58 AM on October 6, 2008

On Windows, Alt+PrtScn screencaptures only the active app.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:56 PM on October 6, 2008

Then use the free and totally awesome pic viewer IrfanView to paste, crop (Windows: Ctrl+Y) and save the Alt+PrintScreen copied window image as a JPG.
posted by IAmBroom at 3:09 PM on October 6, 2008

Also, this site suggests that you can even do it from within Windows Media Player (which might produce better effects):

"Tools -> Options -> Performance -> Advanced -> uncheck Use Overlays -> Done."
posted by IAmBroom at 3:12 PM on October 6, 2008