Introduction: Photo to Stencil Without Photoshop

About: im a maker

this instructable will show how to make a stencil out of any image. i know that you may have seen how to do this before on the make website or other places but all of those methods require you to buy Photoshop this method is similar but free and it only uses one stencil.

Step 1: Download the Gimpshop

the gimpshop is a free software alternative to photoshop go to gimp download and download the GTK first then gimp shop. i have down loaded this and its safe but i am not responsible for any computer damage that happens when after or before you down load this file.

Step 2: Select a Picture

now that you have the program install (this is easy so i won't devote a full step to it) so the next step is to pick a picture i chose president bush because whether or not he is a good president he takes a good picture.

Step 3: Contrast/brightness

now accent the lighter characteristics (use the draw tool in the tool bar) raise the contrast till he looks something like a red tomato raise or lower the brightness as needed then make it a gray scale image(go to the top bar hit the image menu item then view mode the first one then convert to gray scale) see picture 2

Step 4: Contrast Again

now that it is a gray scale image turn the contrast all the way up till he looks like the picture below.
now the last step is the hardest you cant have any pices that are not connected to the sides in some way.

Step 5: Cut

print the stencil then cutout the stencil so it looks like this.

Step 6: Spray

spray paint it spray from a distance and avoid spraying to much or it will pool under the paper and turn into a blob