Deleting similar rough background for multiple images?

[LuciliaePrincess]

Hi all! I am hoping someone around these parts can help me out    I have been using gimp for years, so I am fairly familiar with the basics of it. The majority of the things I use it for all revolve around the same tools, so I am pretty unfamiliar with gimps full potential.

I have searched the internet high and low for some help and I am just not having any luck 
I have got some 360 images taken of a model, and I am trying to delete the background of them to make it transparent, which will be easier for me to work with. The problem I am having is the background is a rough black/grey (from both the pedestal and backdrop), while the model has black/grey on it as well... I have attached 2 images of the model, just to give you a look at what I am working with...

I have tried everything I know, and it is just not working out 
The fuzzy select tool either does not select a good amount of the background, because it isn't very solid, and when I bump up the threshold it starts to select the black parts on the model.
I have used Color to Alpha in the past for many related projects, but due to this model having so much black on it, it is just not working well at all!
Foreground Select is the best I have worked with, but it does not give good results around the black parts of the model since it is so similar to the background.
I have also tried a couple different layer modes to see if any of those will get rid of the background, but again, no luck 

I thought there was a way to delete similar parts between 2 images, but at the time I need it most I am unable to remember anything   The backgrounds are very similar in some places, and identical in others, its just the model position that changes, so I figured it would be fairly easy, but that is turning out to be wrong 

I am hoping someone is able to help me out... I am hoping there is a simple solution, as I have almost 50 images to do like this one...

[Ofnuts]

Unfortunately, no good solution... if the subjects were reasonably different from the background, you could make a picture of the background, and ad it as a layer in Color erase mode (in Gimp 2.10) . But it will work like C2A, part of the subject that are black/gray are going to be partial transparent.

But my human eyes are struggling to determine the limits of the boots and the gloves (especially the character's left glove & boot in the picture on the right), so I don't see how Gimp is going to find them.

This is really a case where shooting again with an appropriate background (white, blue or even red) may save time.

[LuciliaePrincess]

Unfortunately reshooting isn't an option, as they were received through a various of hand-me-downs If so I would image I would have been able to figure it out by now 

If I were able to get just a blank image of the background would that be any help? The boots and gloves are the main problems! Along with the camo pattern if one just seems to be touching the background. I have tried so much and thought I have come close multiple times, but it never seems to work out...

I was hoping not to hear that answer, but with how they are I was expecting it 

[LuciliaePrincess]

Another question, which I probably know the answer to already but I feel I have to ask 

I have got a couple of images taken of the model (they are not a full 360, which is unfortunately why I can not use them on what I am working on) that have a transparent background already. Is there any way to use these images to create, from what I can only think of being some kind of mask that will help with detecting all the outline for the current images I am having so much trouble with...? I am sorry if I am not making sense... I just thought MAYBE it was possible to use the aid of another image that has already had the background separated, in order to help get the background cleaned away from these images.

Again, I probably already know the answer, but I would feel so ashamed if this would help with it and not ask 

[Ofnuts]

(01-19-2019, 10:06 PM)LuciliaePrincess Wrote: If I were able to get just a blank image of the background would that be any help?

If the picture was sufficiently different from the background then yes, you could use that: in 2.10, add as a layer above, and set to Color Erase mode (new in 2.10). Pretty neat to remove complicated backgrounds but that still requires to either not have the removed color in the subject, or to be able to make a selection around the subject, so that won't apply to your case.

So I'm afraid you will have to spend some time with the Path tool to generate outlines manually.