How to Take a Photo with the Camera on a Laptop

This wikiHow teaches you how to use your Windows and Mac computers’ webcams to take pictures. You can use the Camera app on Windows 10, or Photo Booth on Mac.

Table of Contents

On Windows

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You need to make sure your computer has a webcam. If it’s a laptop with a built-in webcam as usual, you can easily take pictures. Otherwise, you need to install a webcam for your computer before continuing.

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Open Start

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. Click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

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Enter camera into Start. The Camera app on your computer will be found, and you’ll be able to take pictures with any connected camera.

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Click Camera . This white camera icon is at the top of the Start window. The Windows Camera app will open.

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Wait for the computer’s camera to turn on. The light next to the camera will light up when the device is turned on, and you’ll find yourself in the Camera app window.

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Point the computer towards the subject you want to capture. You will see an image of the object on the screen.

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Click the “Capture” button of the camera image at the bottom of the Camera app window. The photo will be taken and saved to the Photographs application on your Windows computer.

On Mac

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Open Spotlight

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. Click the magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

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Import photo booth into Spotlight. Photo Booth on your Mac will be found.

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Click Photo Booth . The app is at the top of the list of results below the Spotlight search bar. Photo Booth will open on your Mac.

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Wait for your Mac’s camera to pop up. When the camera is on, the green light next to it will light up.

You will find yourself on the Photo Booth screen when the camera is on.

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Point your Mac towards the subject you want to capture. Everything displayed on the main Photo Booth window will be in the image, so you can rely on what you see in the Photo Booth window and feel free to adjust if necessary.

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Click the red and white “Capture” button at the bottom of the page. The photo will be taken and added to the Mac’s Photos app.

Photos will also appear on your iPhone or iPad if you have Photo Stream turned on.

Advice

Windows 7 computers require you to use the camera’s own application (for example, a camera monitored by CyberLink YouCam has an application called “YouCam” or similar). If you’re not sure of the camera’s name, try typing “camera” into Start, or look up your computer’s model number for the type of built-in camera.
Photo Booth comes with a variety of filters and effects that you can apply to your photos when you take them.

Warning

Pictures taken by webcams are of much lower quality than those taken with smartphones, tablets, and digital cameras (DSLRs).

Steps

On Windows

On Mac

Advice

Warning

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