Silhouettes

I made this fun silhouette of Annie, our Labradoodle, this week. Why? Because I love silhouettes. With silhouettes being so popular right now, many people want to do them themselves. Below are some simple steps for how to make a silhouette in Photoshop. 

To begin, take a picture of your subject. Make sure their face is looking straight. I try to put them in front of something white, it helps in post.

I have opened my picture up in Photoshop. I then take the magic wand tool and select the background. I try to select a portion at a time and delete. This way I do not have to undo if the magic wand selects part of her hair flares. 

After I have deleted all of the background. I take my eraser and erase some of the left over remnants throughout. 

Next, take the magic wand tool and click in the white area. This should select all of the deleted out area.  After you have clicked, right click and select "select inverse." This will then allow you to capture the subject perfectly. 

Then, go to "Image" then "Adjustments" then "Hue/Saturation." If you are a Mac user the short cut is command+U. 

After the Hue/Saturation window opens, move the lightness bar to the left to black out your subject. 

And that is how I make my silhouettes. I then erase part of the body to give it a different effect. 

As you can see in the above pictures, my subject was hanging off the right hand frame. After you are done, you can easily move it to the center. Take the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and drag a large square around your subject. Make sure to not cut off any important parts. While still having the box selected, click the "Move Tool" (white arrow) and drag your subject to the center. To get rid of the box, go back to the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and simply click anywhere on your image. 

I hope you find this silhouette tutorial helpful. A key part is making sure your subject is up against a solid wall. This silhouette of Annie worked pretty seamlessly. However many do not work out so well. =)