1. First i grabbed any photo from the net. In this case a man in jumping motion.

2. The background color by default is white so I eliminated it by use of the Magic Wand. Selecting only the white area of the image and then hit the delete key.

3. As you can see the image needs cleaning up around the edges. I usually do with the eraser tool by carefully eliminating any jagged edges or unwanted color. I always add a Solid background color so i can see in contrast what needs to be eliminated, then turn off visibility mode of that layer when its not needed..

4. Now to begin working with paths, hold the Control Key and click on the layer(this case layer1) to select it. (Load it as a selection)

5. Once you have the layer selected, go to your Paths Tab (As captured below), and click the Make Work Path From Selection option located at the bottom of the Paths Palette. (In Red Square).

6. You now have a new saved path. Double click it to rename it as i did. ie, 'Jumpingman')

7. Now go to 'File', scroll to 'Export: Paths to..' as captured below.

As prompted, save the path (as an Adobe Illustrator (*.ai) file) to a unique location on your hard drive.

8. Double click on the saved Path (.ai) file, to open it in Adobe Illustrator. (Or Drag and Drop into Adobe Illustrator if its already opened) At first nothing is visible, so select the 'Control + A' keys and your 'Path' will be visible as captured below.

Now from here, manipulate (Stroke or Fill) the Path to be applied into your work piece.