Open a terminal window.
Type in the following command:
sudo apt-get install cheese
Run Cheese. Cheese should automatically detect your webcam and display live video stream.
To record video or take a snapshot, click either on photo or video and select Take a Photo or Start recording.
If Cheese doesn't display the output from your webcam, test that the problem is not with Cheese before trying anything else by using one of the programs in the next section.
If Cheese displays a garbled picture or one with poor colour/brightness/contrast, go to the Ubuntu wiki Webcam Troubleshooting page for steps to resolve this.