Well, I know this sounds obvious, but if you ensure that the background is a consistent colour & evenly lit, and a different colour to the subject matter, you can just use the magic wand tool!!!
Except if the bg color is stronger than the subject's it'll bleed into the shadows, and if they're running type round the pix they'll probably need clipping paths (i.e. the pen tool)
We shoot thousands of pix like this, and we've never found as good a substitute.
Mike -- Mouse in the House London A Carbon Neutral � Company practicing Ethical Banking
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