What's the best way to edit the subject differently from the background?

Simply use the select subject tool

Then with command (Mac) / Ctrl (PC)+ J place the selected subject on his own layer

You can the work separately on these 2 layers.

Note that to apply an adjustement layer only to the immediate belaow layer, press Alt and clic on the edge between both layers in the layers panel

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@FyxIt wrote:

My efforts in experimentation have shown that selecting the subject allows me to do some things and then inverting the selection allows me to edit the second part of it.

 

Isn't Photoshop all about layers?  What about masks?

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It’s possible to do everything without any layers or masks, with only selections as you have done. In fact, that’s how it was done in the earliest versions of Photoshop (in the 1990s), and in very basic image editors today. So the way you are currently doing it has a long tradition.

The reason that is not a preferred workflow today is that with selections only, your edits are applied permanently (unless you Undo, but undo history is lost when you close the document). You have to be sure you got it right, because trying to rework it later might be too destructive to the remaining data. It would be too easy to overwork the edits, with no way back.

If instead you put a selection on its own layer (Layer > New > Layer via Copy), now you can make all the mistakes you want on that, and the original data is still safe on the layer below if you need to start over.

Masks provide a way to hide part of a layer so that layers behind it show through. For example, if you duplicate your image, copy the Background layer, and select the subjects on the layer copy, if you next create a mask from that selection, all of the areas outside the mask (the room) are hidden on that subject layer, so you can apply a correction to the entire layer but it effect will be seen only on the subjects (because they are outside the mask). Of course another way to do that would be to delete the background outside the selection of the subjects, but then you can’t get it back. With a mask, unseen areas are only hidden, not deleted, so you can always get them back. Any hidden areas can be revealed again by painting black into the mask. This is especially useful if you later find that you accidentally shaved off part of the subject area that you need; if you had deleted the background outright that extra area would not be recoverable. But with a mask you just reveal the area that you want to show again.

So that’s the deal with layers and masks. Both provide different ways for you to achieve fully reversible edits, so that you can backtrack, change your mind, or improve the image further, at any time in the future, with complete access to the original quality image data.

The true power of Photoshop is not just that you can make global adjustments, but that you can adjust selected portions of your image. Masking is one tool, layers and channels another, and its often helpful to be able to go back and make changes later in the process. The major downsides are that adding layers and masks will increase file size and open/save times, your file formats are limited, and not all applications can work with layered images.

Hi

It would help if you could post the image in question, one thing you could do is to slightly blur out the background, making selections and copying them to there own layer would be a good start.

Hi,

Welcome to Photoshop.

Where possible make a selection then add an adjustment layer to make your adjustments. When you add an adjustment layer with a selection made it will automatically have a mask in the shape of the selection. This has the advantage of keeping the adjustment editable, so you can change it later. You can also alter the mask later should you spot that it was not perfect.

Similarly, carry out any cloning or healing on a new empty layer. 

These techniques keep everything editable and do not alter your original image layer.

Save in a format that supports layers e.g. PSD, PSB or TIFF.

If you need a flattened jpeg to use elsewhere, either use Export or Save a Copy. That way you never flatten your master file.

Dave