Getting a good screenshot of a YouTube video is harder than it sounds. I’m excited to report that I’ve found an online tool that makes it super-easy. But first, some background….
Sometimes you need a still-shot image of someone and one of the best sources can be a screen capture from YouTube. Most professionally shot video is very high quality, well-lit and in-focus. Not as perfect as a professionally staged photograph, but often pretty close.
I use Techsmith’s SnagIt all day long to grab screen images for blog posts and other projects. SnagIt works great if I just want a small part of the video. If I need to capture a high-definition shot of the entire video window, however, it doesn’t work so well.
Here’s a video from Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income TV:
If I pause it at just the spot I want to capture, the time slider at the bottom and the title bar at the top are both in the way. When the video is maximized, YouTube also overlays a shadow at the top which interferes with the quality of the screen capture. All I want is a high-quality capture of the full video window.
Luckily, I found an elegant, free tool called YouTubeScreenshot that does just what I was looking for. You just enter the YouTube URL into the box, adjust the slide to exactly the point in the video you want to capture. and take a screenshot. The site instantly takes the screenshot and you can download it. Perfect!
With a little Photoshopping, you can turn the high-definition screenshot into a pretty decent image:
So, next time you need to grab a quick screenshot of a YouTube video, give YouTubeScreenshot.com a try!
Matt Thomas
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Thank you! I found this just when I needed it. Worked perfectly
Really appreciate the tip. Been looking for something like this for a while.
It isn’t working for me. Is it because of my link or something else?
It still works. I’ve had some minor issues in the past, sometimes the website doesn’t want to cooperate, but stick with it, refresh a few times, and you’ll be able to use it.
Great, I just used it and got a perfect photo for a design I am working on. Thank you Matt for the info.
Only the videos they allow you do
This works for me. Thanks a lot!
Strange, video selector was not show for me, or maybe their service is error?
The video selector does not appear. There is no functionality for moving a slider and selecting a specific frame. Please correct this issue.
Hi Pete! I’m able to move the selector to any position and take a high-resolution video screenshot. I’m using the latest version of Chrome. Could you be using something that disables JavaScript or some other kind of cookie or ad-blocking plugin?
This is wonderful, I just sent my comment earlier. I am also feeling that if there is also similar system (like youtube one) for facebook videos and other videos, that will be very great.
i love this website very easy to use but why its not accept video of 25min
For those who say it doesn’t work…
It worked fine for me with a trailer but not at all when trying to capture stills from a movie.
Maybe it’s the size of your video.
Worked for me – I’ve only tried a simple still from a video.
Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for!
Excellent, thank you! Limited to 490 x 360 but that’s fine, the image is good.
I was able to get the video to display, but there is no slider displayed, to allow me to choose the frames I want.
There’s a very simple solution to take a full screenshot of a YouTube video. No other tool or website is need. If you are using Firefox just right click the second time on the video to show the browser’s menu and choose “save snapshot as…” . More details here:
https://superuser.com/a/1538592
Thanks for the help it worked!
Site is not functioning for me, using two different browsers and two different OSes. The author’s website has an expired certificate. I think this service is dead. 🙁