How to create a silhouette from a photo in photoshop elements

Now that I'm getting into this...

The most versatile method is to use a Clipping Mask.

1. Make your selection:
   
2. Hit Ctrl+J to copy the selection onto its own layer:
   
3. Create two new layers, one above and one below the previous layer:
   
4. Hold down the Alt key and click the dividing line between the top layer (Layer 3) and the middle layer (Layer 1).  This will create a Clipping Mask from the middle layer (Layer 1):
   
5. Now, you can fill the top layer (Layer 3) and the bottom layer (Layer 2) with anything you want -- solid colours, gradients, other images, etc.:
   

The final result:

The beauty of this method is that you can easily change the silhouette shape on Layer 1 by erasing or painting with any colour and the changes are automatically revealed in the silhouette and its background.  The clipping layer (Layer 1) only uses transparent and non-transparent information to do its work, which is why you can paint on it with any colour.

Ken

Another way to create a silhouette is to use Layer Masks.

Here's the original:

1. Make a selection of your object:
   
2. In the Layers Panel, use the icon at the bottom to create a new layer.
3. With that new layer selected, use the icon at the bottom to create a mask.  It will automatically use your selection:
   
4. Click on the mask area and use Ctrl+I to invert the colours of the mask.
5. Use Ctrl+J to duplicate that layer.
6. Click on the mask image of that new layer to highlight it, and use Ctrl+I to invert the colours of the mask.
7. Click on the image area of the top layer to activate it and use the Paint Bucket tool to fill it with black.
8. Click on the image area of the lower layer to activate it and use the Paint Bucket tool to fill it with white.
9. Your layers will look like this:
   

The final result:

Ken

You'll need to post a sample of your photo, as well as an example of the effect you're trying to achieve.

Ken