best FREE mask/insert tool for morphs?

[Ogun]

While i usually use a combination of Irfanview and Paint for most of my work I've been having some trouble with removing backgrounds in my attempt to emulate Linkin's "Giant Morphs."
. I've been trying to separate the background from the person in Paint, make the background white, resize the person, and reinsert having made the white transparent. However I can;t get the entire edge transparent. I've been trying to use IV's clone tool to fix it, but IT takes a lot of work. Does anyone know how Linkin does it? His characters seem to fit in the background smoothly. I'd rather a free program if possible.

[Gene]

It's a snap with "Magnetic Lasso Tool" and "Defringing" in Photoshop_CS4 ($800), or Photoshop Elements ($125).

However if you can find "GIMP" on the Internet it's cool and free and legal. It is very similar to Photoshop Elements. Download the correct version for your machine.

Be warned, GIMP like Photoshop has a steep learning curve but it is a very powerful tool. I don't know what the corresponding lasso and defringing tools are called in GIMP but they're probably there. Learn to work with "layers". Layers are your friend.

I started using Paint about 10 years ago. Yeah extracting is hard work, defringing is near impossible. Once I moved up to Photoshop I haven't looked back.