Silhouettes

Image 1 - Beach.

Image 2 - NYC Night Cityscape.

I made both these images in a similar way.

To create a silhouette, I firstly adjusted the curves of my image to make the dark areas of the image black. Using the Magic Wand Tool, I selected the black area. 

Then using Inverse, I reversed my selection and deleted it, leaving me with a black silhouette and white background.

Using the Paint Brush Tool and Eraser I edited my image and filled in gaps in the black areas and cleaned up the white areas. 

Next, I made another silhouette for my first image (the boat) by using the Quick Selection Tool and painted my selection black. I added this image onto my silhouette, rescaled and positioned it.

For the background, I deleted the Background Layer and using the Gradient Tool I added a sunset background on a new layer for Image 1.

And for Image 2, I added a blue colour with the Bucket Tool.

Lastly, to finish Image 2, using the Elliptical Marquee Tool I created 2 circles for the Moon, the top circle filled in with pure white and the bottom one with a white Gradient (to give it a glowing effect).