Creating digital silhouettes with Photoshop Elements - Positively Splendid {Crafts, Sewing, Recipes and Home Decor} (2024)

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 decideda 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 intoa qualitysilhouette 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
• orright 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 isselected (with the marching ants circling your theselected 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-filledsilhouette.

• 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 step10 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’ta set of thesemake 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 firstproject! 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 aboutthe programduring my coursework toenable 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,

Time to party!

EVEN MORE GREAT IDEAS JUST FOR YOU!