First, I would suggest that you first think in terms of "looks" that you want to achieve (eg, light, dark, moody, colorful, black and white, etc.), not specific bits of software (eg, plugins, presets, actions, etc.). Once you make this general decision and perhaps refine it a bit (eg, do you want the subjects brighter or darker than the background, etc.), then we can talk about what software to use to best implement it.
Another issue is that there are literally millions of different looks for portraits. What someone thinks is a good choice look, you may think is totally wrong.
Bottom line, we will be delighted to help you, but you need to be *much* more specific about what you want than you were in your original request. Probably the easiest way to do this is to post examples (or links to examples) of portraits that you like.
Tom M
