title: OpenCV - cv2.imRead() is returning None
body: <p>Let me just start off by saying I've read multiple articles and other questions about this exact same error! Posting a question was my last resort. I'm working with Python 3.6.1 on 64-bit Windows 10.</p>
  
  <p>I'm trying to do something relatively simple:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Snapshot from Webcam</li>
  <li>Save it to the local Directory, read it from the local directory</li>
  <li>Make a copy of it using the NP.copy() function</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>There's an error between number two and three.</p>
  
  <pre><code>if args["image"].upper() == "CAMERA": #If CLI Arg was 'camera'
      input("Hit any key to capture image...")
      ret, frame = video_capture.read()
      cv2.imwrite("SNAP.jpg", frame)    #save it
      image = cv2.imread("SNAP.jpg")    #load it
      print(image)                      #print as npArray
      cv2.imshow("SNAP", image)         #show it
      cv2.waitKey(0)
  else:
      image = cv2.imread(args["image"])
  
  orig = image.copy()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>SNAP.jpg shows up in my local directory, and it also manages to <code>cv2.imshow()</code> just fine. However, when I <code>cv2.imread()</code> it, I get a None object back. More specifically, I get an empty numpy array:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[[[0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    ...
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]]
  
   [[0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    ...
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]]
  
   [[0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    ...
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]]
  
   ...
  
   [[0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    ...
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]]
  
   [[0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    ...
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]]
  
   [[0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    ...
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]
    [0 0 0]]]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Since it's empty, the <code>image.copy()</code> throws the NoneType error. </p>
  
  <pre><code>  File "text_detection.py", line 51, in &lt;module&gt;
      orig = image.copy()
  AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'copy'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've read  <a href="https://www.pyimagesearch.com/2016/12/26/opencv-resolving-nonetype-errors/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Adrian's comprehensive guide to 'resolving'</a> the NoneType error; no dice. I didn't try reinstalling OpenCV to address the possible image format libraries issue because another test of mine was able to <code>cv2.imread("myFile.png")</code> into <code>Tesseract</code> just fine. </p>
  
  <p>I've also tried changing back and forth between <code>.jpg</code> and <code>.png</code> formats for the snapshot and tried supplying static/relative filepaths. Thanks in advance.</p>