Howdy researchers!

I'm working on a project for a client who needs to be able to upload
product photos to her website. She would like for the images to be
somewhat uniform with the backgrounds removed. (Sort of like this:
http://www.happydaric.com/alterations/subtract-background.html)  She
will be receiving photos from a variety of different people, so the
backgrounds are going to vary (in other words, asking her to take her
product photos with a backdrop won't work).

I'm looking for an easy way for a non-technical user to do this.
Teaching my client how to mask in Photoshop might be fun, but I'm
hoping for something much easier. :)  Perhaps an inexpensive (say,
<$100)
software application -- or something I can run server-side once the
image is uploaded? Any ideas would be appreciated -- feel free to
request claification if needed.

Dear einhard,

Unfortunately, I can't provide an answer to your question. But I want
to let you know that I admire your nickname. Not many people have so
much history knowledge and know Einhard, the chancellor of
Charlemagne.

Best regards,
Scriptor

Thanks Scriptor! You know, you are absolutely correct - in the 11+
years of using this online nick, you are only only one of a very small
handful to make the Charlemagne connection. I chose the nick back in
my MUDing days as a little tribute to one of my heroes -- ah, the days
of Einhard the Elven Cleric...  :)

einhard,

I can not imagine anything that will automatically remove backgrounds
that vary from images that vary. However, if you are looking for the
best program to accomplish this under $100, then it has to be
PaintShop Pro, by far.

Do check it out at www.jasc.com.

Regards,

-=clouseau=-

I have worked as a professional computer graphics artist, and I do not
believe there is any way to automatically remove backgrounds from
photos which have dissimilar poses and backgrounds.

Clouseau's recommendation of PaintShop Pro is an excellent one. This
program is easy to use, powerful, and an excellent bargain.