Screen Shots: Best Social Media & Blogging Time Management Tool for Working with Your Own Images

Show, don’t tell. It’s an old writing addage and it’s as true for social media and blogging, as it for teaching in front of a classroom. The best way to show? Pictures.

Here’s the #1 Time Management tool I use when it comes to creating images to post:

Welcome to the miracle of The Screen Shot.

If you can bring an image up on your computer screen, you can take a .png shot of it. Here’s a quick video demonstration of how I use it when I’m working with images I take with my own digital camera:

It’s a simple process on a MAC. Here how:

Screen Shots using a MAC

(1) Make sure what you want to take a picture of is on your computer screen.

(2) Hold down the Command & Shift Keys and click on the “4″ at the same time.

(3) Look for the cross-hairs that replace your mouse arrow. You can lift up the buttons now.

(4) Using your mouse, pull the cross-hairs to cover what you want as an image

(5) Release.

(6) A new .png file is now on your desktop.

You can take the full screen image, like this picture of the Finder screen I took during the video’s production:

Or you can take a portion of an image.

The video describes how to take quick-and-easy screen shots of your photos using Finder, but this process works just as easily using iPhoto, Bridge or any other program you use for viewing your photos on your computer screen.

The nice thing about using something like iPhoto is that you can resize the photos and take a grouping, although you’re a little stuck with the framing background color unless you want to bother with Photoshop or other image program:

PNG Files Work Like JPGs or GIFs

Once you’ve taken the Screen Shots, the resulting .png files are just like any other image file you upload from your computer into your blog or website program. Want to crop something else out of one of those photos. Just pull the .png file onto your computer screen and take a second Screen Shot.

Screen Shots from Videos

You can even pause a video and take a picture of that, too. Or you can keep the video going and just move really quickly so that the resulting image isn’t blurry. That’s how I took this image of the video embedded in this post:

Honestly, you are only limited by your creativity and clicking-speed.

But here’s a hint when dealing with moving images like a video. Just like taking sports pictures, it’s best to be prepared for the shot…

In the case of Screen Shots, that means take all the steps to get to the cross hairs. Maybe even pull the cross hairs out to the area you think you’ll be taking the picture from and then, when that scene in your video comes on-screen, quickly release. But be prepared for a 2nd or maybe a 3rd take… Video screen shots are harder.

Copyright Issues

A word of copyright caution: These tools are not meant to be abused. Please stay true to copyright limitations and byline considerations. Your taking a screen shot of someone else’s work doesn’t make it your work.

P.S. to PC Users

_{NOTE for PC users: You can use the Print Screen function on your keyboard to create Screen Shots. Search Youtube.com for PC how-to vidoes. Just not sure if it has the same crosshairs functionality or if it only takes full screen shots. I’m a former PC user but currently only use Macs.}