silhouette tutorial
We all love a good silhouette. Especially of sweet little faces. So {as promised} I’ve put together a tutorial on an easy way to make one. Now, easy may be relative so bear with me.
But first, a little silhouette inspiration:
Feeling inspired?
Here we go …
First, you’ll need a camera, a subject, a computer and some type of photo editing software {I use paint.net {a free downloadable software with similar features as photoshop. Any expert graphic designer would laugh at me for using such ‘sub-par’ software, but it works. And it’s free}.
When taking a photo of your subject {in my case my No.2}, use a background that contrasts with the skin {in my case a dark background}. Be sure to get a good profile shot from the top of the head to below the shoulders. Keep in mind that this was in the morning {hence the p.j’s} and I stuck some gel in his too-long hair and it looks very funky. I swear he’s a cute kid.
So, first up, open your photo in your photo-editing software.
Change the image to black and white
In the adjustments drop down menu, select brightness/contrast and adjust so that there is a greater difference between light and dark in the photo.
You may have to play around a little with this to get it right.
Now, using the Magic Wand tool {see the one that is blue in the Tools bar on the left}, click on the background. This will highlight everything that is that color on the photo. You can see a tiny dotted line where the outline is.
Now delete what you’ve just selected {press delete on your keyboard} and the background is now transparent.
Using the eraser tool {again, the blue one in the Tools menu on the image here} erase the extra stuff in the background that was not deleted. I also shaved off a little bit of #2’s hair and cut off his shoulder.
Now, use that Magic Wand tool again to select the background.
Then in the edit menu, select Invert Selection so that just the silhouette is selected
Again in the Edit menu, select Fill Selection.
With the eraser tool, make any adjustments to the silhouette
And you’re done! Before saving, I cropped mine using the Rectangle Select tool
and then that cropping tool that is blue in the top menu bar {the jaggedy square – that’s the technical term}. Now save the image as a .png {so that the background will remain transparent} and you are finished!
If you want to get a little bit crazy, here’s another thing you can do.
Figure out the size of your image {go to Image, then Resize and this menu will show. Look at both the Resolution and the Print size}.
Then open up another image of some type of background paper. This one is a free download found here. You’ll need to adjust the size of this to a slightly larger size than your silhouette image {for example, my silhouette is set to 300 resolution and 4 inches by 4.3 inches. I resized the background to also be 300 resolution and 5 inches x 5 inches}.
Now click on your silhouette image {up in that top right section where the pages you are working on are held} and use the Magic Wand tool to select your silhouette
Now copy
click over to the background image {again in that top right spot} and Paste as a New Layer
You’ll have this
Now in the Layers menu, choose Layer Properties and change the Opacity to 0. This will make your silhouette layer transparent but you’ll be able to see the outline {can you see it?}
Press that same jaggedy square cropping tool and you’ll get this:
If you copy and paste it to a new background, you’ll have this:
Super cute.
Here’s another:
And just for fun, one more:
{That’s my niece who is perhaps the cutest child I’ve ever seen}
So as you can see, it is not a hard thing to do, it just takes a lot of steps. I hope I haven’t thoroughly confused you. I know there are about 25 other ways to make a silhouette, but this is one way to do it.
Happy silhouetting!
Faith
I was wondering how to do this when my daughter has black hair…I have been messing around with the paint.net program, but can’t seem to figure out how to keep her black hair with the silhouette and not delete with the rest of the background?? Any suggestions. I even tried taking her pic against a lighter background, but then her face disappears?!?!? Please help!!
kay elle bea
I don’t know if you’ve had an answer yet but try the same thing Hollywood does: green screen. Maybe not literally green but try a bright color that won’t be anything close to your daughter’s hair or skintone. Hope this helps, I’m going to have to try this method too, we all have very dark hair so black won’t work for us either.
Lauren @ Daisy Cottage Designs
Oh my! This is the cutest thing ever. I honestly can’t wait to give it a try. If only they had paint.net for Macs
I’m going to have to find another program that will allow me to try this. I want to do this and hang it in my craft space… if only my 1 year old will sit still long enough for me to take a picture of her profile 
Kelly@Bungalow Blue
This is amazing! Thank you so much fo sharing in such great detail! Can’t wait to try!
allison
THANKS so much. I was able to do this & put it in my antique locket. Love it!
Emilie
Can anybody suggest what kind of software to use for a Mac to do this?
Kara AP
Just did this and LOVE the results! Thanks so much for the great tutorial! I did have a little problem smoothing the edges the silhouette (probably due to the original picture). If anyone else is having this issue, go to Effects, Noise and then Median to play around with that.
Jennifer Morical
Another fabulous idea! I actually did this one for my daugther’s room by printing out the image in black and white from my computer, tracing with a sharpie around the edge and cutting it out with an exacto blade. No sofware needed = )
Susanna
Thanks for the great tutorial Emily! I’m so happy with how the silhouette’s of my three kiddos turned out using your wonderful instructions. http://tsbundy.blogspot.com/2011/06/silhouettes.html
Wendy
ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou!
I have 3 boys and only 2 silhouettes! Now I don’t need the nice old man at the Fairhope (AL) Arts&Crafts Festival! I CAN DO MY OWN!
Poor youngest children of the world…they are always the ones with the incomplete baby books, thinnest photo alblums, and no silhouettes.
Thank you for coming to the rescue!
Katie
can you use photoshop actions on paint.net??
Beth
This would have been so easy if the software for Mac was the same! For Mac you can download Gimp for Mac but it is different from how it was described above. Maybe I will have more time later to figure out how to do it because I love the idea!
Rosemary Salmon
Thank you so very much for these wonderful craft ideas. I’m going to attempt to make these silhouettes of each of my 14 grandchildren. My 25 year-old granddaughter, Taylor, sent me the hyperlink to your web site. I LOVE it. Taylor is also making silhouettes of every child in her mom’s fourth grade class for her.
Jennifer
hey… I did this on my mac using gimp. Look it up. Whatever program she used must be pretty similar to it bc I followed her steps and found the same stuff…
Shaie
Faith,
I haven’t done this yet. But with your daughter having black hair, maybe you could just change her hair or whole silhouette to a different color first and then it wont blend in with the background and then make her silhouette black. Just an idea.
Tanya from Dans le Townhouse
Great tutorial! I have a collection of vintage & antique silhouettes and now I have no excuse not to make some of my own!
http://dans-le-townhouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/silhouette-wall.html
Ceelo
I found you through Pinterest. GREAT tutorial and I’m so glad to see someone using Paint.net for once!
adrienne
Where are these necklaces from? I’ve been searching and can’t find anything like them!
alexa
any suggestions on good backgrounds for girls prints? where could I find the hair accessory in the isabella print?
Jennifer
I want one of the beautiful necklaces!! Where do I find them? It is just my style and nothing is more perfect than wearing my sweet babies around my neck!
Lesta
AWESOME! I have paint.net already too! Now I just need some more grandkids for that necklace! Thanks!!
Lauren
How cute is that! No kids yet, but have been wanting to make a silhouette of our sweet pup! Thanks!
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Shelby
I stumbled on your website by accident about 3 hours ago (and yes I am still here). Wanted to tell you your blog is awesome and being aDIYer myself I love it. Was just wondering if you could do a tutorial on keeping a 14 month old still so I could do a silhouette?
Christina
has anyone had troubles downloading paint.net?
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