istantanea

Istantanea is a feminine noun in Italian that primarily denotes a still image captured at a particular moment. In everyday Italian, it is most commonly used to mean a snapshot or candid photograph taken quickly, often with a small handheld camera. In a broader sense it can also refer to any image that freezes a moment in time, including single frames from a video or film.

The word is formed from istante, meaning moment, with the derivational suffix -anea. It has been in use since the rise of portable photography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although closely associated with photography, the term is also used in computing contexts to mean a screen capture or memory snapshot, such as "istantanea di schermo" for a screenshot or "system snapshot" in software documentation.

In common usage, istantanea conveys informality and immediacy, distinguishing it from more formal terms like fotografia or ritratto. In English, the closest equivalents are snapshot, still, or screenshot, depending on the context.

Related terms include scatto (a shot or snap), fotografia (photography), immagine (image), and, in computing, screenshot or screen capture. See also freeze-frame for a captured frame from video.