Silhouettes for Mother's Day

Last year for Mother's Day we gave the grandmas silhouettes of our boys. It is a timeless gift that grandmas love! I plan to continue this tradition every year and they can swap out the new head for the old and watch the changes as the boys grow. I also hung some in our room, because once the silhouettes are complete there are countless ways to use them. And they are really simple to do! I've seen tutorials using Illustrator, but I am pen tool challenged so I used Photoshop.

First, you need a profile photo of your child. A solid wall would work best, but sometimes you've got to do what you have to. Here he is sitting in his bumbo as the older brother entertains him.

I'm using Photoshop CS4 here, but other versions should work just as well--all you need is the magnetic lasso tool.

Select the magnetic lasso tool and start selecting the child's face. Pay special attention to detail and be sure to click to make the lasso stick. Smiles, eyelashes and hair add the greatest detail to the silhouette.

After you have it like you want it (it may take a few tries), select the inverse.

You'll notice at this point I add a blank layer, moved my photo up a layer and shut off the original--but having a white background will work the same!

Press delete and watch a floating head appear. Ctrl + D (Command + D for the Mac users) to deselect. I used the eraser to clean up any stray debris remaining and the brush tool to add a little more neck. Remember it is going to be black and white--meaning everything that isn't white will be black.

We are almost done. We just need to turn the little guy black.  Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

Move the lightness slider all the way to the left and the image will turn black! That's all there is to it.

 

I added his name and the year to the bottom just for kicks. It will be fun to see how he has changed in the last year! And I still can't get over those eyelashes!