Changing background

[Mike Comber]

Damien,

To change the background of this portrait, how would I handle the holey part of the hat brim?  Does it require painstaking one-by-one masking of the holes?

[Damien Symonds]

Almost certainly yes.  What are you changing it to?

[Mike Comber]

Just a solid darkish color

[Damien Symonds]

Then the edges of the fluffy scarf will be just as problematic.

I urge you to abandon this idea while you still have your sanity intact.

[Mike Comber]

Hadn't thought about the fringes of the scarf. I'll take your advice and abandon the idea.

As an afterthought, had I used a solid color background to begin with when taking the photo (of a color that didn't appear elsewhere), could I then do a selective color substitution to change the backgroun to some other color?

[Damien Symonds]

With much more ease than this white background, yes.