Simple 4-step Photo Editing Silhouette Tutorial

5:10 AM

Not only would these look great on any wall but they would make great gifts to close family members. You could do so much with a silhouette image like card making, photo prints, scrapbooking, wall decor... its endless!  And the best part... you can make your own silhouette images with just four easy steps! And it gets even better...
 Here is a link to a completely free photo editing software download- Paint.net. I used this program to make this tutorial and its so easy to use. So anyone with a computer can make these fantastic custom silhouette images completely FREE. 

1. Take a photo of your subjects profile against a white background. Open your photo in paint.net program, select the magic wand tool, click the magic wand in the white background image area.


2. Add another layer, while magic wand is still selcting the background area, use your fill tool to fill in the area with "White".


3. De-select the magic wand, and fill in the image area with black. Merge layers.
If you like the way this is with the white background go ahead and save your project as a jpeg. file.


4. If you want a png. image so that you only have the black silhouette image instead of the white background attached. Select your magic wand tool and click on the white background, hit the delete button, and there you go. Don't forget to save your image as a png. file.

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Tips:
If your silhouette is just not working, it is probably either the photo you took or trouble with the magicwand settings. Make sure the background to your picture is one solid color and try to have as little of shadows as possible in the picture. If you are still having problems this youtube tutorial on the magic wand is a great help. 

This can be a really simple fast photo editing project if you have the right picture to begin with. Remember I am always happy to help, so feel free to email me at everydaymomideas at hotmail dot com if you have any questions. 



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49 comments

  2. I am totally going to do this and make them to go on my wall in my apartment once I get one.....hehehehehe you'r making them...hehehehehehe love ya SIS

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  3. I just discovered your blog and I have to say i'm in love lol this is amazing thank you so much for sharing if you ever want to pop by my blog any time is www.patriciaraedesigns.com :)

    Amanda

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  5. I have been looking for a simple way to make a silhouette for a LONG time now! Thank you soooooo much!

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  6. What an awesome idea! Thanks so much for sharing. I never thought of doing it this way! Too cool!

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  7. Hello,
    Just a quick note to let you know I love this post and have added it as a favorite on my featured Guest Curator story on Crescendoh this week. http://blog.crescendoh.com/art_saves/2011/07/a-rewarding-chapter-by-melissa-bolton.html

    Hope it brings lots of traffic ~ I just adore these!

    Melissa Bolton
    DesignherBrands.com

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  8. Thanks for the tutorial...and inspiration...I've pinned this maybe now I'll actually try it.

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  9. i just downloaded the program and am eager to use it! i can't find the 'magic wand' tool though. can you please email me and let me know how to do that? thanks!

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  10. We have been printing many of these lately for customers. The 12x12 with white space looks so great!

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  11. Thanks for the tut. I just downloaded the program as well and I have no idea what the magic wand tool is. Please help.

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  12. Oh, I LOVE this!!! Going to try it for Valentine's gifts for grandparents ;-)

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  13. Great tutorial! I just wanted to give a tip that I found useful--paint.net kept crashing my computer, so I downloaded the free program Gimp. No more computer problems, and your tutorial works with it as well. Thanks!! :)

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  14. Great tutorial, I'm passing it on to my readers, we make fingerprint and keepsake jewelry, this would be a great addition to that!

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  15. I downloaded and ended up with a rotten toolbar and can't find paint.net.

    ????

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  16. This tutorial didn't work at all for me. My son has curly hair and using the magic wand didn't cut out a specific shape, so every time I tried to fill in with the paint bucket I got a weird black image with lines and stuff - nothing close to the success posted in the blog. Is there another way, or some sort of trick?

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  17. I'm totally having the same problem with the curly hair. Your son's image was cut very cleanly, but the image of my daughter is all over the place. Am definitely willing to accept any suggestions.

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  18. Too cool! What a great tutorial! I am featuring it on my blog Friday - thanks for the great idea!!! I think it would be cool to do this with characters from picture books. :)

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  19. I'm having a hard time with the paint.net download

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  20. I'm going to make this for my LO 2nd birthday invitation! Thanks!!!!

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  21. Has anyone found the magic wand tool? I need help!

    Thank you~

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  22. I used to do these with my Kindergarteners. Our school cutter had Washington and Lincoln templates so I just sized their own slhouettes to match and they glued them to a banner where they had written 'Great Americans.' LOL WAY cute.....

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  23. For those who can't find the magic wand. Press F5 to open the box with all the tool icons. The magic wand is the fourth one in the left column. Right about the paint bucket. I use paint.net all the time. It's great for changing the color of an object.

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  24. I love this! Thank you for sharing. I will use this for school-- and to do my own children's sillohuettes...

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  25. do you know if they have a paint.net that is mac user friendly?

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  26. Ive tried and tried but cannot find where or how to download...what am I missing??

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  27. Great work !! Keep up the good posts. I like your blog. Thanks for sharing this blog.

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  28. Soooo simple, thank you so much for posting this :)

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  29. I can't find the magic wand either. F5 doesn't open any tool options. I'm stuck! Please help.

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  30. Hello,

    I had a lot of trouble with this tutorial like some of the others...but i HAD to make it work. Like one of the comments suggested I used Gimp instead of paint.net but beware of different downloads you are able to 'decline' with whatever program you choose. Here is what I did between steps 2 and 3....after 'filling' the background with white, click the magic wand, then select the image(i.e. the face). Then you can "deselect" the wand as she says to in step 3 and I found the rest of the directions to work out as she stated.

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  31. will work the same way with photoshop and magic wand. just as easy to use!

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  32. What an awesome idea! You are so creative. I love silhouettes! This one is fantastic :-) Thank you so much! roygroething.com | Checkout roygroething silhouette portrait

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  33. I gonna try it soon. Amazing. Thanks for sharing.
    roygroething.com | student silhouette Photography

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  34. I hand make @140 silhouettes each year for our outgoing 5th graders. I can't wait to try this! This could save me weeks of time!!! I hope it works :)

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  35. I've been wanting to do this forever to either make a framed print or cut out of felt and put onto a pillow.

    Thanks for the info!

    Suzanne
    www.etsy.com/shop/studiotullia

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  37. Photo Editing Silhouette Tutorial seems to me sound like very nice and I'm quite sure that in such tutorial will surely be handy for people to understand that basic nicely. Thanks dude :)

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  38. I need HELP! I have tried and tried and I cannot get this to work. I was hoping to give the silhouettes for Mother's day gifts. Can someone help me?

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  39. Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

    Dana

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  40. Can't wait to use those photo editing tips and I hope those would be very better for my task. I just discovered those are stunning and also easy to understand. Thanks for sharing.
    Photo editing services

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  41. Gimp is also a FREE download witch you can use the same method.

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  42. Can't find the fill tool.. help!

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  43. Thank you for these great tutorial. It was really helpful.

    professional photo editing services

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  44. This type of artistic creation has something special I think… I work with photo editing for a long time, sometimes I do silhouette photos for my clients using http://softwarehdr.com/mapp/ the best soft for it.

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  45. Could you please add directions for those of us who do not know the simple things on the program. Where is the fill tool? How do I pick white? Googling I found some answers, but pretend we are in kindergarten and go from there. That would be helpful. thank you.

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  46. Very informative tutorial. Thank you so much for your tutorial! Between this and blog beautiful, I think I,m finally getting on the right track.

    photo editing company


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  47. Thank you so much for sharing this! My daughter brought hers home from school and it was one of the worst silhouettes I have ever seen.

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  48. All of your sharing steps are very useful and effective . You have explained here very well .

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  49. Effective post !!! All the tips are so much useful. Excellent !!!

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