Take photo with webcam online, at the full resolution your camera gives the browser and with nothing to install: turn the camera on and press the button. Set a 3, 5 or 10 second timer to get into position, take a burst of 3 or 5 photos so you can keep the best one, and choose PNG for full quality or JPEG for small files. A screen flash lights your face in a dark room. Every photo waits in a gallery below the camera until you save it, one at a time or all together in a ZIP file, and none of them leaves your device.
How to take a photo with your webcam
- Press Turn on camera and allow the camera when the browser asks.
- Pick your camera and Photo size at the top. Largest the camera gives uses its biggest video size.
- Choose a Timer, the number of Photos per press and the File type.
- Press Take photo or the Space bar. The yellow countdown shows the seconds left, and the picture flashes white when each photo is taken.
- Press Save under a photo to download it, or Download all for a ZIP with every photo.
Photo settings explained
| Setting | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Photo size | Asks the camera for its largest size, 1080p, 720p or 480p | Largest for prints and profile pictures, smaller for quick sharing |
| Timer | Waits 3, 5 or 10 seconds before the photo | When you need both hands, or want to step back |
| Photos per press | Takes 1, 3 or 5 photos about half a second apart | Group photos and anything with blinking |
| File type | PNG keeps every detail, JPEG makes much smaller files | PNG for editing, JPEG for email and uploads |
| Save mirrored | Saves the photo flipped, the way the preview looks | When text should match the preview, otherwise leave it off |
| Screen flash | Turns the whole screen white for half a second | Dark rooms and evening photos |
PNG or JPEG?
PNG is lossless: it keeps every pixel exactly as the camera sent it, so a 1920 × 1080 photo is often several megabytes. JPEG is compressed at high quality and is usually a few hundred kilobytes for the same photo, with no difference you would notice on a screen. Choose PNG if you will crop or edit the photo, and JPEG if you will email it, upload it to a form or a social profile, or take a lot of photos. Each photo in the gallery shows its size in pixels and in kilobytes before you save it.
Why is my webcam photo flipped?
The preview is mirrored so that it feels like looking in a mirror, but the saved photo is not, which is how phone cameras behave too. That is why a photo can look the other way round from the preview, and why writing on your shirt reads correctly in the saved photo. Turn on Save mirrored, like the preview if you want the photo to match exactly what you saw. To check how you look without taking photos, use the webcam mirror.
Get a better webcam photo
- Light from the front. Face a window or put a lamp behind the screen. If the room is dark, turn on Screen flash, or use a fill light for video made from your screen.
- Camera at eye level. Raise a laptop on a stack of books so the camera is level with your eyes, and look at the lens, not the screen, as the timer ends.
- Use the timer. Pressing a key shakes a laptop slightly; a 3 second timer lets it settle.
- Take a burst. With 3 or 5 photos per press, at least one usually has open eyes and a natural expression.
- Clean the lens. A fingerprint makes every photo look hazy, and no setting can fix it.
The photo is dark, blurry or small
A dark photo needs more light in front of you; the camera cannot add detail that is not there, and in dim light it adds grain instead. A blurry photo usually means a smudged lens or sitting too close to a fixed focus camera, so move back to arm's length. A photo that is smaller than you expected shows the camera's real limit: check every size it supports with a webcam resolution check.
Take a photo without a browser
Windows has the Camera app, which saves photos to the Camera Roll folder in Pictures. Macs have Photo Booth, which counts down three seconds and can take four quick photos in a row. On Linux, GNOME's Cheese or its newer replacement Snapshot does the same job. These apps are handy offline, but they do not show which size the camera really uses; this page shows it on every photo.
What a browser photo cannot do
The browser takes each photo from the camera's video stream, so it cannot use a larger still photo mode, RAW files, HDR or the portrait blur that phone camera apps add. The flash is your screen, not a camera flash. Photos are held in the tab's memory, and the page keeps the 40 most recent, so save the ones you want. If no picture appears at all, the steps for a webcam not working will help, and the webcam test shows the resolution, frame rate and light the camera is giving you. To capture movement and sound instead, use the webcam recorder.
Webcam photo questions
How do I take a photo with my webcam on Windows 11?
Use this page in any browser, or open the Camera app from the Start menu, switch it to photo mode and press the camera button. The Camera app saves photos in Pictures, then Camera Roll, and it has a photo timer too.
How do I take a photo with my webcam on a Mac?
Open this page in Safari or Chrome, or open Photo Booth and click the red camera button. Photo Booth counts down three seconds first; hold Option as you click to skip the countdown. Its photos stay in the Photo Booth library until you drag them out or export them.
Where are my webcam photos saved?
Photos wait in the list below the camera until you press Save, which puts them in your browser's downloads folder. Download all saves every photo in one ZIP file. Anything you do not save is deleted when you close the page.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The photos are made inside your browser tab from the camera picture and are never sent to a server. The page works the same with your internet connection unplugged once it has loaded.
Why is my photo smaller than my camera's megapixels?
Browsers take photos from the camera's video stream, so the largest photo is the largest video size, often 1920 × 1080 (2.1 MP). Phone and webcam boxes often quote a bigger still photo size that only the maker's own app can use.
Can I take a burst of photos with my webcam?
Yes. Set Photos per press to 3 or 5 and every press takes that many photos about half a second apart. It is the easiest way to get one shot where nobody blinks.