Tip-silhouettes from photos

[DebS3786]

When I was a child a popular craft was to create cut-out silhouettes by having someone sit so that you could trace the shadow of their profile by shining a light on them. You can create SVG files from photos that give a similar effect and eliminate trying to get a child to sit still while you trace his or her shadow and the tedious hand cutting this technique required. Here are the basic steps:
1. Select a digital photo that has a nice profile and crop the photo to eliminate as much background as possible.
2. Using photo editing software (I used photoshop) carefully erase all of the background so that all you have showing is the profile. Using the "magic wand" select the erased background and then do an inverse select to select the profile. Fill the selected area with a solid color.
3. Save the resulting picture as a jpg and open in Illustrator. (I'm pretty certain you could also open it in Inkscape.)
4. Use the autotrace to create an SVG of the solid color profile.

I placed the silhouette inside a simple frame when I cut it with SCAL and used both the negative and the positive of the cut to create two different projects. With the scalability of the files you can create framable sized silhouettes or miniature silhouettes.

[papasue]

Great tip and good explanation!

TFS

[GrammyKrausse]

I have one of those sil's. My son was in kinderten and is now 43 years old but haven't been able to find it. It's made of construction paper and very acidic. Might try again this afternoon. Would love to scan and make the svg. I know his wife would love it.
Grammy

[sambobbitt]

My mom has one of my son from 1st grade hanging in her living room. When my son did it the sil. picture came out looking like my brother who passed away some years ago. Everyone always says how my son looks like my brother but this was spooky. My mom keeps it as a reminder. Just thought I'd share...

[TheresaTT]

i am somewhat noncreative when i comes to this stuff, but i want to try this. thanks for the info. i may need to ask for help though. TFS.

[HeatherM]

Here is a how-to on making a silhuette from a photo using photoshop elements. http://www.scrapbookmemoriestv.com/proj ... 1010_4.htm