You have several choices for bringing a still image, such as a drawing or a photograph, into your multimedia project. This activity card describes one way&emdash; using a video camera. To do this activity, you need a Macintosh with video slots, such as the ones shown in the illustration. Activity cards 1-3 describe other popular ways to capture a still image.

1. Connect your equipment - connect the video camera to your Macintosh.
 
2. Start the video capture software - To capture video, you can use Strata VideoShop, HyperStudio, or MoviePlayer (the application that comes with your Macintosh).
 
3. Set preferences (optional): picture quality, the more In your video-capture software, you can set preferences for picture quality, for disk space your picture w~ example.
 
4. Take the picture - pose for the picture in front of the camera.
 
5. In your video-capture software, click Freeze or a similar command to take the picture.
 
6. Save the photo - In the dialog box that appears, type in a filename you'll remember and choose a location on the hard disk to save the photo. Save the photo as PICT.
 
 
1. Choose an editing tool based on how much editing you want to do. For example, you can use your authoring tool - HyperCard, HyperStudio, or Kid Pix Studio - to crop and resize the picture. If you want to adjust contrast, brightness, or color, use Color It! instead.
 
2. Open the photo you want to edit from within the editing tool.
 
3. Use the editing tool to enhance the image. You can crop the image, retouch it, change colors, and so on.
 
4. Save the edited photo - With the image still open, choose Save from the File menu. In the dialog box that appears, type in a filename you'll remember. Then choose the file format you want. For use in multimedia projects, PICT is the recommended format. Finally, choose a location on the hard disk to save the photo.
 
 
1. Open the authoring tool you're using for your project if it's not already open.
 
2. Start a new multimedia project or open an existing project. For example, to start a new project in HyperCard, choose New Stack from the File menu.
 
3. Add the edited photo to your project. For example, to add a photo in HyperStudio, choose Add Clip Art from the File menu.

Return to Ideas for Using Technology in the Classroom