Silhouette From Photo

[Ellington Walford]

Iused two Sony flash units, on their stands, pointed at the walls behind Mary and John. The flashes were set to be triggered wirelessly. You could however do this with a couple of normal bright lamps. Remember, the goal is to make the background really bright.

The most important thing that I did right in this shot was place Mary so that there was nothing in the space between her pony tail and the back of her head. Getting that space empty white to start with saved me some tedious detail work with the adjustment brush later on.

Convert to grayscale (keyboard shortcut: V). Then set Blacks slider to -100 and Whites slider to +100. If your photo is a good candidate for this project, you should be able to see the silhouette emerging already.

When I was 36 weeks pregnant I wanted to recreate this picture from Kelly Hicks Photography. Before whipping out my fancy camera, I thought I'd see if I could get a similar look with my iPhone. And sure enough! With a little bit of work, apps, and an iPhone camera (an outdated 4 at that ;)), this is what I got. Every week I post a bump shot, but today's 36 week photo got quite a bit of a response on facebook and instagram. ? And many of you wanted to know how I captured it. It wasn't as hard as you might think, here's what to do!

Prop up your camera on a box, dresser, or something across from your window so that it is at about shoulder height. Don't use the camera facing you on the screen, you'll get a low resolution. Point the back of the phone towards you, and look on the screen to try and get your window in the center. Start the timer, stand about 1-2 feet from your window, hold still, and snap! This is what you'll get, it's your tester shot to see what pose works for you. You'll notice that it's just a regular pic, not blown out, and the laundry pile is in focus. This is your tester shot, look at this and see what you want to change about your pose. For me, I lined up the arm next to the window in line with my body so it didn't show, and my hand closer to the camera on my hip, making sure that you could see the curve of my back clearly. My bun wasn't so messy either, so I fixed that. Also play with how close or far away you are from the camera, 2 feet from the window seemed to be the best for me. Okay. Got your pose? Get your phone ready, and TAP on the corner of the curtains or window in an area where you will not be standing. Your camera will focus in on that area and make the light blown out a bit. Set the camera timer, get in your position, and hold still. SNAP! Woo hoo, my light is all bright and I'm all dark like a silhouette! But this photo could still use some editing. Open your Afterlight app, and play around with your photo how YOU like it. Here's what I did in mine:

Here's the before and after of my picture: The one on the left still looks good and didn't NEED to be edited. But the one on the right?! It evokes a hazy, dreamy glow. The tilting and cropping help draw your eye to the person, rather than the bed or the laundry on either side of the picture. ? Not bad for an iPhone camera! Pin to save these directions for when you need em! Try it out for yourself, have fun with poses, or add your kids, pets, or family to the mix. I'd love to see it if you try it out, so feel free to email me, comment here, or tag me on Instagram (my handle is @whbsblog) if you post on there!

I think this is the first Pin that I ever actually followed through on-- and it worked GREAT! I am so happy with how the photo turned out, thank you thank you! I did it at 38 weeks. I also figured out that you can use the new iPhone 6 and you don't have to download Camera+ if you don't want to-- there is a 10s timer in the camera app. Thanks again, great post!

Thank you so much for this idea and tutorial! What a special picture I'll have to remember this pregnancy with my son. I've already shared your blog with a few pregnant friends that plan to use this tutorial when they get their full-term bumps!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been wanting to do a picture like this for quite some time and I am so thankful to have found this tutorial! I edited mine a little different (like you said- do it how YOU like it) and I am just in love with the outcome. I can't believe I was able to do it alone, too! I was wondering if propping my phone up would work, but it did! Thank you!!! You can see my picture at the link below.

I pinned this a few days ago, and I couldn't wait to try it. I'm only 5 months right now, but I gave it a shot anyway. I Love how it turned out! I've put the link below if anyone would like to see! Thank you so much for posting. ?

Thanks for this great tutorial. I first came across the original photo awhile ago and thought, "Oh, wouldn't it be nice to find a photographer who could take this kind of photo of my pregnancy." But now I can have my husband read your tutorial so he can be the photographer. So thanks again.

You inspired me! I gave this my best shot in my little poorly-lit basement apartment and was pretty happy with the results even though it's not exactly a silhouette. Check it out if you have a free sec! Great site!

Hi, I'm Ann Marie. I want to help you find peace in your home through simplifying your life, taking on small projects, and learning to find your style. Learn more about this site and why I started it...

You can make a silhouette by taking a photo of a backlit object with the lights coming from behind. You can also create silhouette effects using photo editing software like Fotor's silhouette maker. It lets you make a silhouette from any photo in a matter of seconds.

Fotor's silhouette maker provides in-built photo editing tools that you can use to make beautiful silhouette artwork with ease. Overlay images to create an abstract double-exposure silhouette portrait, or use various preset backgrounds and stock images to add a fantasy backdrop to your silhouette. You can turn your favorite photo into a silhouette in a variety of ways. Try it out right now to make your very own silhouette art.

Fotor's silhouette maker gives you everything you need to make spectacular silhouette pictures online. There is a library of silhouette clipart that you can freely use- tree silhouettes, bird silhouettes, cat silhouettes, dancer silhouettes, and a whole lot more. In addition, you can customize the opacity and colors of the silhouette clipart, move it around the image, and scale it up or down to fit your needs. Creating a silhouette photo has never been easier!

I hope that this tutorial will give you a few ideas on how you can add a photo to any design in Silhouette Studio. Let me know if you found this tutorial helpful and by all means, leave a comment if you have any question on how to use your Silhouette CAMEO. I would love to hear from you!

Hi Martha! New follow here from The Building a Framework Facebook group. I am new to a Silhouette and so far have done only basic things with it. Mostly cutting Vinyl wording. I have a blog link up every week and would love to invite you to come over and share! Here is the link for this week. =4587

I'm trying to convert from photoshop to affinity but am struggling. This literally takes me seconds in AI.

I find a picture I like... I open it up... I trace the image as silhouette... I expand the image... I have outline of image... a smooth outline no anti-aliasing.

How do I do this in Affinity? It's been 2 hours of googling and playing but no luck... So far this is what I've done:

Opened up image in Photo... removed background... save as .png... open up image in Designer... layer effects > Outline... I expand the outline (but I can not tell what thats done, if anything)

I'm now stuck... how do I just get that outline... nothing else, just a vector image of that outline with no anti-aliasing?

Thank you for any helpful answers

(I'm begging you guys for help here, I seriously do not want to go back to Adobe... I realise there's a learning curve and there will be something obvious but I'm struggling... I can usually switch to a new bit of software with a few tutorials and some googling but this is just getting painful... sorry)

Oh god that was the answer I was dreading

I still want to support the underdog though... I've bought copies and will continue to play with them but it looks like I'm going to have to pay the extortionate Adobe fee's

Thank you for your reply Gary... just to double check... are you saying I can not convert that pink outline I've created into a vector?

Really appreciate your solution... just loaded it up and it is perfect... unfortunately Inkscape, as much as I love to use open source and (donate to it) is clunky AF with it's XQuartz on my mac... so frustrating... I love the Affinity software, it really does have a beautifully made UI... it just doesn't do what I need

Looks like I'm going to have to suck up the Adobe price in order to have that "just works" experience... I do appreciate all the answers and help I've had from folks here but I also have animation to do

Looks like my move to open source and alternatives to the giants will have to wait a little longer... gutted but I gotta work, eat and pay bills

Thanks again

AFAI remember I tried that out once, it works with setup layers (manual layer based) and offers manual adjustments. So you do sort of a manual color quantization with that software (setup each wanted color layer). It can give good results though needs more time and manual work in contrast to other software.

Yes as default Intaglio Vectorize traces one color layer, so you would have to setup/add other additional color layers manually inside, in oder to trace for multiple colors. I'm not sure if that software uses maybe potrace too internally, since potrace usually traces just in BW and thus in order to trace for multiple colors one needs a color quantisation method there for dealing with the handling of different colors.

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