photoshop: Hello, what photoshop should I buy that can change a background in a portrait?

lois hall

Hello, what photoshop should I buy that can change a background in a portrait?

breck Loc: Derbyshire UK

photoshop CS5, 6 or cloud, earlier versions will also do it but you will have a problem getting good tutorials of the web, it is easy but time consuming to do well

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

lois hall wrote:

Hello, what photoshop should I buy that can change a background in a portrait?

PhotoShop Elements, current version 11, will do what you ask. For a fraction of the cost of CS6, and no monthly charge like the Creative Cloud.

Or, you could buy LightRoom 5, and use Topaz or Perfect Suite.

Everything mentioned, EXCEPT PSE11 have free trials.

Correction. As mentioned below, even PSE has a free trial.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Wall-E wrote:

PhotoShop Elements, current version 11, will do what you ask. For a fraction of the cost of CS6, and no monthly charge like the Creative Cloud.

Or, you could buy LightRoom 5, and use Topaz or Perfect Suite.

Everything mentioned, EXCEPT PSE11 have free trials.

Adobe PSE11 Free trial:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_elements&loc=us

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

A word of Caution to whatever version you end up with,(PS etc.), you may eventually be forced into purchasing a subscription on the Creative Cloud (CC) with Adobe should you want to keep current...stop the subscription, lose the use of the software. Not all are upgradable and you will have to subscribe to stay current...unless you are satisfied with what older versions have to offer.

SueMac Loc: Box Elder, SD

All of the above mentioned programs will do a good job in changing out the background, but they all have a learning curve and it takes time to get the hang of replacement. I do it quite often but then I've been on Photoshop since 2001.

misplaced Texan Loc: Texas Gulf coast

The freebie Fotor will do the task of throwing the background out of focus.

PS Elements? I down loaded the trial ...... It will do many things but, some quite awkward requiring several clicks.

I have the older Corel Paint Shop Pro XI that is much better than either of the mentioned PS programs in altering backgrounds.

kjay27

Photoshop Elements (PSE) is an excellent program that can do unbelievable things to a photo at a much lower cost than regular Photoshop, but I found that it does have a steep learning curve. If you eventually decide to do Photoshop Elements, I'd wait until September or October because the new Version 12 is due out soon. I'd also recommend signing up for the PSE online courses at ed2go.com. (They also have Lightroom and regular Photoshop courses). Print off each lesson and answers so that you'll have a notebook for future reference. Some people use Lightroom in place of the PSE Organizer because the PSE organizer isn't so great. Once you get more into photo editing, I think you'll find that it's a lot of fun.

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

OnDSnap wrote:

A word of Caution to whatever version you end up with,(PS etc.), you may eventually be forced into purchasing a subscription on the Creative Cloud (CC) with Adobe should you want to keep current...stop the subscription, lose the use of the software. Not all are upgradable and you will have to subscribe to stay current...unless you are satisfied with what older versions have to offer.

Well......
If you own CS6 or any version of LR, you can keep it forever. But there will be no more updates to CS6. Not sure about LR5, Adobe hasn't said.
Heck, there are professional wedding photogs still using CS4. The only update they've had to do is refresh ACR [Adobe Camera Raw] to be able to read the current raw file formats.

And Adobe isn't the first to move a major piece of software to a subscription model. QuickBooks has been that way for several years.

lois hall

thanks for all the help re photoshop

MtnMan Loc: ID

lois hall wrote:

Hello, what photoshop should I buy that can change a background in a portrait?

Elements 11. It is much cheaper and easier to use than full photoshop.

About $69 on sale now. Sometimes less than $50.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Wall-E wrote:

...

Or, you could buy LightRoom 5, and use Topaz or Perfect Suite.

I don't know how to replace a background in Lightroom 5 or using the Topaz suite I have. Can you enlighten?

(I do know you can do it simply in Photoshop Elements. And you can use Topaz remask to help extract and mask what you want to keep. But it isn't necessary as there are other ways to make the selection.)

lois hall

thank you for help---elements 11 sonds perfect, may wait for elements 12

MtnMan Loc: ID

lois hall wrote:

thank you for help---elements 11 sonds perfect, may wait for elements 12

Adobe's policy on upgrading Elements suck. They usually want more for the upgrade than you can buy the original for elsewhere. So if you aren't in a hurry waiting won't hurt. Download and use the free Picasa in the mean time.

There are two versions of Elements. If you don't do video editing you only need the standard, not the premiere.

I wouldn't expect much different in Elements 12. They made quite a large change in the user interface on Elements 11. I think it is now much easier to learn. I struggled with 10 till I got Scott Kelby's book on it. My wife, who is far less computer savvy than I, dove right into 11 and was using it with no problems.

kjay27

lois hall wrote:

thank you for help---elements 11 sonds perfect, may wait for elements 12

In that case, you might consider getting LightRoom 5 now (it's on sale through B&H) and start using it as your organizer and then add just the editor part of PSE 12 when it comes out. LR also has many of the initial editing capabilities as PSE