How to take a webcam picture using OpenCV in Python

This code opens /dev/video0 and takes a single picture, closing the device afterwards:

import cv2

video_capture = cv2.VideoCapture(0)
# Check success
if not video_capture.isOpened():
    raise Exception("Could not open video device")
# Read picture. ret === True on success
ret, frame = video_capture.read()
# Close device
video_capture.release()

You can also use cv2.VideoCapture("/dev/video0"), but this approach is platform-dependent. cv2.VideoCapture(0) will also open the first video device on non-Linux platforms.

In Jupyter you can display the picture using

import sys
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

frameRGB = frame[:,:,::-1] # BGR => RGB
plt.imshow(frameRGB)