I have 4 photos of individuals that I need to turn into two photos with two each. Any recommendations on the best approach to this? I was thinking of using the magnetic or polygonal lasso to outline the individuals and then copy and paste them together. I am concerned about this approach because of the hair, and trying to get all those little bits involved.

Hair is always a problem to extract. There is no magic bullet. You might check out Russell Brown's site for a tutorial. I think he has one there specifically on extracting hair.

the best way to extract is using the pen tool...make a path around the people, but keep the hair out (countinue path around skin of face/head) then save that as a channel. After that's done, take the laso tool and as close as you can to the hair and away from areas you already selected, make a new selection...then click on select- color range...that way you can select the color range of the hairs only...keep doing it and saving them into your orginal channel and soon enough you will have the people and the hair...(you may have to go into the channel itself and brush in some hairs, but its not too too hard..

If you need me to explain it to you better let me know...Its easier to show then explain! haha

For the Russell Brown Tutorial click Here (http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/AdvancedMasking.mov)

If you've got good contrast between subject(s) and background, try using the extract filter. It's a bit hit and miss, but sometimes gives excellent results and is a lot faster than creating your own masks.

If you were to post the pictures you want to work on, we'd be better able to suggest the most appropriate technique.

I will send two examples. I tried using the export transparent image and selecting the white background with the magic wand, bt in each case there was some sort of white line surrounding the images, enough that it totally blew away what I wanted to do. I mucked about with them and managed to turn the white outline into a green outline-don't ask me how or why, as I haven't got a clue. Any and all advice is appreciated.

I don't understand why you are "exporting a transparent image". After you extract the subject "jump" (Photoshop New layer via copy) to a new layer. In Photoshop just drag that layer with the transparency to a new document or to the other file where you have extracted the second subject.

The white border you got around your extraction was probably transition or anti-alias pixels around the hair after using the magic wand. Most folks would select the white background, invert the selection, modify the selection by contractng a couple pixels, set a small feather then copy the selection to a new layer (or invert the selection again so that the background is the selection then delete the background.)