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Creating digital silhouettes with Photoshop Elements

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Good Monday morning!

I am really, truly excited about the tutorial I have to share with y’all this morning! I have shared recently (see my posts here and here) that I have developed a new decorating fetish: silhouettes. It seems lately these little beauties are popping up just about everywhere, and for good reason. They are such a delightful, meaningful way to punch up your home decor and other crafty projects!
When I first decided a couple of months ago to pursue the idea of creating silhouettes of my three children, I knew immediately that I wanted to do so digitally. I loved the idea of letting my Photoshop Elements software earn its keep, so I set to work in coming up with a method to turn my digital photos into silhouettes in jpeg format with just a few clicks of a mouse. After some trial and error, I think I have come up with a good system for taking a photo and turning it into a quality silhouette image.
So what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!
You’ll need:
– Photoshop (PS) or Photoshop Elements (PSE) software
– A profile photo of your subject, preferably taken against a light background. If your subject has long hair, it is preferable to have them wear their hair up so you can easily outline their neckline.
Step 1

Open your photo of choice in PS or PSE.

Step 2
Create a duplicate layer.

  • layer > duplicate layer > ok
  • or right click on background layer in layers palette > duplicate layer > ok
Step 3

With the background copy of your photo selected, look in the layers palette to the dropdown menu at the top left (the default setting is “normal”). From this dropdown menu, select “vivid light” (this will adjust the lighting to draw your subject out from the background).

Step 4
Flatten your image. To do this, right click on one of the layers in your layers palette and select “flatten image.”

Step 5
Using your magnetic lasso tool, carefully go around the outline of your subject.

  • Tip: Your eraser tool is your friend here. If your lasso tool is outlining features or shadows you don’t want, simply “erase” those things from the photo and try again.

Step 6
After the desired portion of your image is selected (with the marching ants circling your the selected portion), delete your selection.

Step 7
With the marching ants still circling the now deleted silhouette portion of your image, use your paint bucket tool to fill the deleted portion in with black or your color of choice.

Step 8

From the “select” menu at the top of your screen, choose “inverse.” (Or, alternatively, type Shift + Ctrl + I on your keyboard.)

Step 9
Delete the selected portion of the image, which is the portion of the photo surrounding your color-filled silhouette.

  • Hint: If you aren’t happy at this point with the way your silhouette is outlined, simply use your eraser and paint tools to erase or fill in certain areas to achieve your desired look.

Step 10
Crop your image as desired and save as a jpeg to use in your craft and home decor projects!

Once step 10 is complete, you will be left with a silhouette of your chosen color on a white background. If you want to change the background color, you can use your magic wand tool to select the white part of the image, then fill the area using your paintbucket tool in the color you desire. To change the color of the actual silhouette at this point, choose select > inverse, then fill in with your paint bucket tool in the color you desire.

For my mom’s belated birthday, I used this process to make silhouette images of all of her grandchildren, and I then printed them out onto cardstock to make these little jewels. Wouldn’t a set of these make a great Mother’s Day gift?

I invite you to come back tomorrow when I’ll be showing you have to turn the image you just created into something like this…
And like this…
(By the way, a Cricut will be involved in the first project! Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. 😉
As always, please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions at all! I am far from an expert when it comes to Photoshop software, but because one of my undergraduate majors in college was public relations, I learned just enough about the program during my coursework to enable me to manage my photo editing and other projects like this one. (Well, and sometimes to get me into a bit of trouble. 😉
Thanks so much for stopping in,
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Comments

  1. Queen Bee says

    Amy,
    These are beautiful! I’ve been wanting to give these a try too… thank you for the tutorial! Too clever!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog too. Have a great week!

  9. Meg says

    Thank you for the step by step! I’m so bad at figuring this stuff out on my own! I get frustrated and just give up. I love what you did with the images, too! So creative. Great job!

  11. Sweet Little Smoothie says

    Ooooh – this is a great tutorial! I am definitely adding this to my list of projects. I can just imagine an age progression version. Thank you for the tute & inspiration!!

    Thanks for also stopping by my blog 🙂

  18. Jillian says

    That is awesome! I’ve been planning to add some silhouettes to my wall, so this tutorial is great! I posted a link to it on my ‘crafty’ blog.

  21. Sonja @ Craft-Werk says

    Hey Amy, finally getting around to return the visit and thank you for your comment on my silhouette mugs. Your post on creating silhouettes in PS is great. Hehe, wish I had read it before I made my own botched up silhouettes from photos…

  24. Amy says

    I love this! I almost had one of these made a few weeks ago, now I am going to get my husband (Photoshop Expert) to do this tonight!!!!!
    I love your blog!

  28. willow says

    I can not wait to try this out. I love the version at the top where they start to look like pop art. Thank you for posting this tutorial.

  33. shaina says

    this worked perfectly for me. I’m using my silhouette on my blog header in my new design I’m doing. Thanks for the clear and understandable tutorial. 🙂

  34. Michelle says

    Hi Amy, I have recently found your blog, (and realized how much I have missed out!) I’ve been wanting silhouettes like these for my little bears for so long. My “problem” is I have photoshop CS5, ( AND I’m not so great at it:-) I know this tutorial is in for photoshop elements. Do you know how much different it would be for me to create in my photoshop? Thanks for all that you share….I have a “special” project list a mile long…who knows if I’ll ever get any done, but it sure does give me something to look forward to doing! <3 Thanks!

  37. Raphelle says

    Thank you so much for this tutorial! I wanted to create an image of my daughter to make cufflinks for a Father’s Day gift and this was exactly what I needed! Thank you!

  39. Dayli Meo says

    Thank you very much for your post! I had a project in mind and this was a great tutorial to help me create an image that would be easily traced in the Sihouette Studio software! Also a tip for anyone who does not have the Photoshop software… try the trial download from Adobe first.