James,
we're test-driving both Digital Anarchy's Primatte and Vertus' Fluid Mask software. Frankly, at the moment they don't do a much better job of masking than PhotoShop alone but for folks who aren't used to cutting out objects in PhotoShop, I guess they would speed up the process.

As I said, we'll try all three approaches and I'll share the results. As for the background, having a solid color does make it easier to remove in PhotoShop just using selective color. So, that's an advantage to having it even if the software doesn't do its job.

More later,

Jim