Clean screenshots outside of Windows GUI

TIP: When taking pics of a computer screen with a smart phone, back off a bit (to avoid fisheye effect), and try to hold the phone parallel to the screen. If the bottom of the phone is further away from the screen, the picture will be skewed, etc.

If the camera is rotated compared to the screen, the pic will also be skewed.


For example... this looks like the left side of the phone was a tiny bit closer to the screen than the right side.




This is a screen shot...





It won't be perfect, but you can get the pics a lot better, skew-wise.
I don't know why the colors in the phone pic are weird, compared to the screen shot.
But I'm new to smart phones.

I have a Fotopro UFO2 Tripod that I bought on Amazon. It has a remote that connects with Bluetooth.

spunk said:

... taking the picture with your smart phone is usually good quality ... In most cases you do not need to edit the picture to upload it to a Forum.

As the OP said,

tecknot said:

My photos are all skewed

MrEd & I were suggesting methods of resolving that.

tecknot said:

My photos are all skewed

If you are going to regard a tripod as a generally useful tool then fine but I got along fine with the de-skewing, rotating & cropping procedures [using free tools] that I posted a link to.
Like you, I thought a tripod would be a good idea.
Now I have a tripod, I have much less work to do during my de-skewing, rotating & cropping procedures but I do still need to do them to some extent.


If you are going to go ahead with buying a tripod then don't make the mistake I made.
Many, perhaps all, smartphone tripods allow you to tilt the phone up & down [i.e. from ceiling to floor] and to rotate it round & around [i.e. portrait-landscape] in its cradle.
Nothing like as many tripods allow you to rotate the phone cradle left or right. Mine doesn't so I have to lift up & rotate the tripod itself to point the phone in the desired direction - and doing this is a matter of pot luck. It would be much quicker & much less disruptive to be able to rotate left & right instead.

I agree with the suggestions about bluetooth tripods.
Mine has bluetooth.
Before I started using its bluetooth, I tried taking photos without it & I found that I always had to use my phone's 10 second delay feature so it had time to stop shaking from the effect of my pressing the screen to take the picture.


All the best,
Denis

RickC said:

However, I've now ordered a multi-purpose bluetooth tripod (with 360 degree 'panaroma' swivel), just in case.

Rick,

I searched & search & searched a few months ago but could not find what you have found. [In the end , I gave up and got the cheapest one that fulfilled all my other requirements.]
Please post the link.
I'll try to persevere with my existing one but it will be nice to know about a good one in case I decide I have more money than sense.


All the best,
Denis

Rick,

Sorry but that 270 degrees refers to being able to take photos of your feet and then swing it up to photograph the clouds.

I didn't look at this one during my selection. I limited my search to ones that were at least 1.4m tall so I could take photos of things on my desk.
I have some other Gritin things and they are decent quality.

Ah - Gritin reading lights - I have three clipped onto my shelves, pointing down at my desk. Between them they light it up so much that I can turn the camera flash off even in the dark. This has a very nice effect on rendering colours that camera flashes distort. Gritin have lots of product pages for different lamp body colours rather than a single product page with colour options.

RickC said:

21,504 ratings - 63% at 5 stars

It would also have passed my ratings checks.
I shortlist things quickly by only looking at
- at least 100 rating
- overall rating 4 or 5 stars
- no more than 10% of ratings at 1 star or 2 star level


All the best,
Denis

I should have mentioned that the small tripod I bought has a standard 1/4-inch socket. That means all I have to do is unscrew it and use it on any standard photo tripod. I have done that many times.