- "real" photographies - which would mean photographing my tv set. I tried this before to check some features on my camera - never for screenshots. What you get out of this depends a lot on your tv set and your abilities with the camera, but I'd say the quality will never be very good.
- still shots of video clips - version 1. Having video clips on my computer and play them in a player I can use the "Print" button on my keyboard - BUT on modern computers the graphic device often uses some acceleration method which won't allow you that (i guess that's what you got with black pics). To do it anyways you have to go the settings of the player (options) and switch off the acceleration.
- still shots of video clips - version 2. Here I also need video clips on my computer, e.g. in wmv format. Then I need a program which lets me do still pictures, I use Windows media maker e.g. Works quite well, but you are dependent on the quality of the video clip.
1) Tape the show you want to make screencaps from. It will be necessary to use a digital camcorder; you will get better quality screencaps if you record the show directly from the TV to the camcorder, and save you an extra step (getting the video from the VCR to the camcorder). However, it might be necessary to tape the show using a VCR if, for example, you're not at home.
2) If you tape directly to your camcorder, skip this step. The key now is to get the video from analog to digital so you can transfer the data to your computer. Hook the VCR's video and audio outputs to your camcorder and tape the segment of the show you want to screencap (or the whole thing if you want to make computer videos as well).
3) Now, to get the video from your camcorder to your computer. This requires a few materials: a Firewire/IEEE1394 port on your computer and your camcorder, and the appropriate cable. Open your video program on you computer and follow its instructions on how to upload the vid to your computer (I use a Mac/iMovie and it's easy)
4) Now that the video's on your computer, if the program will allow you to, you can use the player to select the frame you want and click "Save As" and it will same the frame as a JPEG image. But for better quality screencaps, I use iMovie to export the video to QuickTime, and then make the screencaps from QuickTime. I'll post an example of a screencap I made in a little bit.
Sorry if I confused you- the computer guy in me just took over!
OK, here are a few I made...these particular ones are from Kwan's skate at Marshall's. Note that I had to convert these files to JPEG images and reduce the size of the file (the original files were .pct) to host them so the original screencaps are just a little bit sharper than these:
Actually, there are special devices and software that allow you to hook up your computer to your TV/VCR and "capture" it as still-shots.
I have used a few different ones, with varying success. The one that I mostly use is a device (with it's own software) called "Snappy". It was relatively cheap and easy to use.