Project 9: Digital Silhouette

Before there were cameras, people made silhouettes of people they wanted to remember. A silhouette is a replica of the shadow a person makes. Watch this short video about the process to understand how this early photographic process was done.

You are going to use the camera to help make a really good SILHOUETTE of a subject by tracing them using the magnetic lasso. This is an example that I made from a photo.

For reference, here is the original:





STEP 1
Ask a classmate to be your subject. Take a PROFILE photo of your subject. Make sure that the subject is against a NEUTRAL background that is not too busy. Avoid photographing over patterns.

STEP 2
Take the memory card out of the camera and insert it into the computer. Open the SD card under THIS PC and find your image. Drag that picture to your One Drive

STEP 3
  1. Open Photoshop.
  2. Create a new document 8.5" x 11"
  3. Open the photograph of your subject.
  4. In the tab containing your photo go to the SELECT menu and click on ALL:

  5. Go to the EDIT menu and click on COPY.
  6. Select the tab for the new document you created and go to the EDIT menu and click on PASTE.
  7. Use the MAGNETIC LASSO to trace around the silhouette of your subject. You will see something like this:

  8. Create a new LAYER by selecting the PLUS sign at the bottom of the LAYER PALETTE:

  9. Select BLACK as the FOREGROUND COLOR:

  10. Use the PAINT BUCKET tool to fill in the dotted line selection:

  11. Use the MOVE tool to resize the silhouette.
  12. Use the ERASER tool to get rid of any jagged parts of your image.
In the end you will have this: