I am finding this too hard, I googled and found some companies that do this sort of thing, has anyone tried them? Is clipping path the same as deepetching. http://www.deepetch.com seems to be one good one, I also saw http://www.lazymask.com and http://www.digital-media-tech.com. Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing. My catalog has over 300 images of jewellery and jackets with fur fitted on manequins due in two weeks, all shot on a blue studio background. Do I require alpha channel masking? Can anyone help please?

you may want these guys to do it for you.
http://www.misterclipping.com/index.aspx?pageid=1

I have also encountered same problem and thanks for the useful links above.

i got some very informative tips and tutorial from lazy mask thanks for letting us know about such good portals but their contact us page is showing error, what the matter with it ?

Remove background may also known as outlined an image and then clipped the desired image from the background. To do this in photoshop pen tool is the best choice for outlining the image.There are various which can provide that service at a very low such as http://www.clippingpathspecialist.com .