How to Make a Silhouette in Photoshop Cs2

Follow some simple steps and create silhouettes in Photoshop CS2.

Just about everyone has seen the iPod ads with the silhouette people, dancing, lounging and playing. The colors are brilliant and the images are quite attractive. Such images are quite easy to create with Photoshop. You can create an entire group of silhouette people by utilizing the available features of Photoshop Cs2. You can make your silhouetted images dark, gray or white with brightly colored or gradient backgrounds or whatever would go well to illustrate a page or a website.

Instructions

1. Choose an image with a plain solid background.

2. Click "Image" and then "Image Size" from the main menu. Make sure the "Resample Image" check box is selected, then choose "Bicubic Sharper" from the drop-down menu.

3. Resize the image, if necessary. A canvas of 250 pixels by 350 pixels may be enough, but you can make it any size you are comfortable with.

4. Click the "Magic Wand" tool and select the background of your image. You can use the Pen tool or the Lasso tool to sharpen the image.

5. Click the "Delete" key on your keyboard. This will erase the background.

6. Click "Image", "Mode", then "Grayscale" from the main menu. If the "Flatten image" dialog box appears, choose "Don't Flatten."

7. Click "Image", "Adjustments", then "Brightness/Contrast." The "Brightness/Contrast" dialog box will appear. Move both the "Brightness" and the "Contrast" sliders completely to the left. The numbers for both values will be -100.

8. Click "OK." You should now have a silhouette.

References

• Adobe Tutorials
• Photoshopsupport.com: I See iPod People---The Photoshop Silhouette