Capturing a single image from my webcam in Java or Python

@thebjorn has given a good answer. But if you want more options, you can try OpenCV, SimpleCV.

using SimpleCV (not supported in python3.x):

from SimpleCV import Image, Camera

cam = Camera()
img = cam.getImage()
img.save("filename.jpg")

using OpenCV:

from cv2 import *
# initialize the camera
cam = VideoCapture(0)   # 0 -> index of camera
s, img = cam.read()
if s:    # frame captured without any errors
    namedWindow("cam-test",CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE)
    imshow("cam-test",img)
    waitKey(0)
    destroyWindow("cam-test")
    imwrite("filename.jpg",img) #save image

using pygame:

import pygame
import pygame.camera

pygame.camera.init()
pygame.camera.list_cameras() #Camera detected or not
cam = pygame.camera.Camera("/dev/video0",(640,480))
cam.start()
img = cam.get_image()
pygame.image.save(img,"filename.jpg")

Install OpenCV:

install python-opencv bindings, numpy

Install SimpleCV:

install python-opencv, pygame, numpy, scipy, simplecv

get latest version of SimpleCV

Install pygame:

install pygame