Photo to silhouette

[adryan_g78]

Hi!
Below I'm attaching two pictures: the first one is a silhouette-like portrait of Marilyn Monroe, the other one is a regular photo.
I've tried to convert that photo to silhouette using treshold or photocopy filter, but I'm not satisfied with the results.
Could anyone give me a hand about this? I'm quite new with Gimp. I'm using 2.10.
Thanks in advance!
   
   

[Ofnuts]

This is done with the "Curves" tool. You add contrast by changing the straight diagonal line into an "S". The stronger the maximum slope in the middle of the S, the more contrast. The skill is to find that maximum slope, and where it should be.

However.... this assumes you start with a good picture(*), and the one you show has plenty of problems: overexposed, blurry, busy background, number in the foreground, and a strand of hair across the girl's cheek and the guy's nose.

(*) With Gimp and Photoshop, the "Garbage In, Garbage Out" principle also applies. And you have to consider that most "artistically edited" pictures you see have been shot specifically for that purpose, carefully avoiding reflections, strong shadows, etc...

[adryan_g78]

(11-09-2018, 09:36 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: This is done with the "Curves" tool. You add contrast by changing the straight diagonal line into an "S". The stronger the maximum slope in the middle of the S, the more contrast. The skill is to find that maximum slope, and where it should be.

However.... this assumes you start with a good picture(*), and the one you show has plenty of problems: overexposed, blurry, busy background, number in the foreground, and a strand of hair across the girl's cheek and the guy's nose.

(*) With Gimp and Photoshop, the "Garbage In, Garbage Out" principle also applies. And you have to consider that most "artistically edited" pictures you see have been shot specifically for that purpose, carefully avoiding reflections, strong shadows, etc...

Thanks!
I will give it a try. Some advises about how to clean the picture?

[Ofnuts]

If I had thought the picture could be fixed I would have answered differently. IMHO that one is hopeless. What you can do (but this requires artistic skills) is to use it as a model, and paint black areas on a transparent layer above it (then discard the bottom layer).