I can’t draw. I haven’t really tried to learn, but as it stands I don’t have much skill when it comes to drawing things by hand. Even a silhouette is challenging, and yet sometimes I need a good one for a design. Enter Photoshop, which I have essentially taught myself. I’m sure there are some crucial skills that I lack, but having learned it on my own has allowed me to improvise and solve problems. If you ever need a silhouette of a person or object and can’t find a good one online, here’s how you can make one for yourself

(I’m using CS4, so there may be slight difference from other version, but likely nothing major)

Step 1

Find an image online that you think would make a great silhouette. For the purposes of this tutorial, it’s best to find one that has a solid color for a background. Ideally, that color should not be connected to one in the image you want to use as a silhouette. Allow me to demonstrate:

Bad

The black in the background is connected to parts of the hat and his hair. While Kanye himself would make a great silhouette, this is not the best photo to use.

Good

Here, the black background does not connect to any of the colors in the main part (T.I.) of the image. Much easier to work with.

Step 2

Copy and paste, or save and open, this photo in Photoshop. Now we’re going to do a couple of very simple things in order to get a silhouette from T.I.’s image.

Magic Eraser Tool – right-click on the Eraser Tool to get these options.

Remove the black background with Magic Eraser Tool

Assuming you’ve turned on any background layers, and have removed the black background from the image, you should see something like the above.

Step 3

Add a Layer Style – Color Overlay

You could also use a gradient overlay if you wanted to get more creative, but a color will do just fine.

By default, Photoshop will use the color red for the overlay. Just click on the little red box and change it to whatever color you want. You can play with the opacity as well, if you’d like.

Enjoy your final product

Now, this isn’t the most exciting silhouette, but you get the idea. At this point, you could experiment with other Layer Styles or Filters to change the appearance of your silhouette.

Other Useful Tools

Magnetic Lasso Tool – sticks to the edges as you lasso around it (works better with some images than others)

Magic Wand Tool – magically selects sections of an image (press Shift as you click on them to combine them all into one area)

NOTE: All Photoshop tools have options that may affect how they behave. Things like tolerance, opacity and anti-alias, for example. It’s always a good idea to further research what these all do, in order to get the best results.

Another Use for Removing the Background

Bringing people together for a group shot

All these artists were in separate photos before I removed the backgrounds and combined them into one. Then I added the music note thing behind them all.