I was chatting with a friend today who was asking for help with an image and I was having trouble visualizing what she was describing. I said, “Take a screen capture and text it to me.” Afterward, I thought about how often I use this nifty little hot-key function. Seriously, I probably use it daily. I send clients screen captures of their artwork and head shots. I use them in tutorials, blog posts, how-to videos, workshops, mini-clinics, slide show presentations… If you have not been using this cool little function then you are going to LOVE this.
What is it?
A screen capture (a.k.a screen shot, screen grab) is exactly how it sounds. It is a function that takes a “snapshot” of your screen… the WYSIWUG version…What you see is what you get…
Options! Options! We like options!
Take a snapshot of your entire screen! Take a snapshot of half your screen! Take a snapshot of the little section you draw a rectangle around… Don’t need a file? Just copy the capture to the clipboard instead! Don’t like hot-keys? That’s okay! You can take a screen capture Geek-Squad style, using the PC command line terminal…
There is an entire .org website dedicated to the topic of screen capture, with your choice of five different language translations. I kid you not. You can take a screen capture on any device that has a screen! Every way and every device imaginable is covered on this site. The wonderful world of screen capture, neatly packaged in a .org…
http://www.take-a-screenshot.org
Why use them?
Screen Captures are handy for three major reasons…
1. They are quick to create…
2. They are very small in file size…
3. They are high-resolution enough to show detail…
As I stated at the beginning, I use them for EVERYTHING. Screen shots are one of my favorite teaching tools.
- If I’m helping a student create an effect I’ll screen capture me doing the steps and shoot them over text…
- Screen capture files are created on a time stamp which puts them in numerical order. That makes it very handy to load them into a stack in Photoshop.
- While working on an image I’ll do periodic screen captures and put them together in Photoshop timeline and create an animated .gif out of the project’s progression.
- When I do workshops and presentations I use screen captures for the slides. It makes for a smooth transition between shots, so the changes in the PS file are easy to spot…
- When doing a blog post I do screen captures to zoom in on the tools and portions of the screen I am referring to so others can follow the steps easily…
- So many uses my head is spinning…
The bottom line? Take a picture… it’s quicker…
Tell me some of the ways you guys use them! Share them in the comments below!
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Keep learning and keep #SharingItForward!
Lady Caroline
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