Take a picture of a person. Get rid of the background (optional). Fill the image of the person with a solid color or pattern. Instant silhouette, right. Those are the basics. But there's more to creating good silhouette images.

Why or How to Use Silhouettes

• Using Silhouettes as Abstract Symbols and Metaphors is a gallery of images that utilize silhouettes of people or objects and describes how the silhouette works in the image.

• Using Silhouettes Expressively is a brief description of the function of silhouettes in art, in advertising.

• Explore the many traditional and new definitions for silhouette as well as how silhouettes have been and are currently used in design, art, advertising, and visual communications.

How to Create Silhouettes

• Famous Silhouette Logos and How to Create Them in Photoshop shows how to create those silhouettes like you see in logos like for the NBA.

• How to Create Silhouette Portraits describes how to photograph someone and use Photoshop to turn it into a traditional profile silhouette.

• Fun With Silhouettes in Photoshop shows you step-by-step how to take a photograph and fill it with color or a pattern. There's PDF version for download as well.

• Creating Silhouettes in Adobe Illustrator starts with a photograph in Photoshop then moves into Illustrator to complete the silhouette.

• 3 Easy Ways to Create Silhouette Characters shows how to use Microsoft Office Clip Art, your own clip art, or photos to create silhouettes.

• Create a Simple Clip Art Silhouette doesn't start with a photo. It shows how to use basic shapes to draw a simple silhouette figure.

• Pattern Silhouette Using a Layer Mask is really more like taking a photograph and turning it into a drawing or single color image. But nice effect.

If you have a traditional carry around with you and show to prospects kind of graphic design portfolio, you usually put actual copies of your work into the pages. Prospective clients or employers can take out the pieces, flip them over, handle them. Not so with an online portfolio. So you need to use photographs that really show off what you've done. Not just the layout. Reproduce the texture, color -- the actual look and feel -- as closely as possible.

Scanning the pieces is one option. Photographing them may offer even better results -- you can take photographs of a brochure standing up and at an angle to show off the folds. You can use the angle of light to show reflections from metallic inks, subtle paper textures, or clear varnishes. You can create a still-life kind of photo of matching letterhead, envelope, business card.

• In 5 Business Card Photography Tips, get tips on photographing your business card -- or really, any print project.

• Close-up images are what you'll want for much of your print pieces. You may even want to go super close to highlight certain details. Taking Great Macro Photographs has tips on taking those super up-close photographs.

• Lighting is important in any kind of photography. When photographing your print projects for your portfolio you'll want to play with lighting in order to show off texture and subtle features that might not be obvious in a straight on shot with standard room lighting. Photography Lighting defines common terms and describes ways to control the lighting.

• Much of what you create is similar to paintings or drawings -- flat pieces of art. So the advice in How to Photograph Art can also apply to photography of your print work for your portfolio.

• Even when creating a traditional portfolio (in a case, not online) there may be times when you want to use photographs rather than the actual item. Either way, in How to Create a Traditional Graphic Design Portfolio (With an Actual Case) (scroll a bit more than halfway down) you'll find 16 tips on photographing your work to include in a portfolio. They recommend hiring a professional photographer if you can and include some tips on what to ask and what to look for in a photographer for this type of work.

Rather than writing it all out again and just changing a few words, read About.com Drawing / Sketching Guide Helen South's post on No Secrets, No Quick Fixes and simply substitute desktop publishing or graphic design (or whatever other skill you wish to acquire) where appropriate.

What? You were expecting it to be spelled out for you in a few short sentences? Sorry. But it is spelled out here -- the secret to doing good desktop publishing and graphic design is behind those tabs at the top of the page (Basics | Software | Tasks & Techniques). Happy Learning!

Despite the name, the "for Dummies" books aren't too bad. And this particular one gets 5 stars from reviewer Jennifer Krynin. Google Blogger for Dummies, written by About.com's own Web Logs Guide, Susan Gunelius, is for both beginner bloggers and those who have been at it awhile but want to do more about growing their blog and monetizing it. My own blogger blogs (on topics other than desktop publishing) have been languishing a bit lately. I think about them every few days but then don't go blog anything. Perhaps picking up this book will inspire me to dig in and keep on bloggin'.