[Gimp-user] Having trouble creating transparent background

[Accordeoniste <forums gimpusers com>]

I took a photo of me standing against a wall. The wall is pale yellow in color.
It's hard to describe its texture, but  it isn't smooth, if that makes a
difference.

To create a transparent background, I took the advice of an online tutorial.
First I added an alpha channel with Layer / Transparency / Add Alpha Channel.
Then I selected the background with the Fuzzy Select tool. Then I pressed the
delete key. The result was a mostly transparent background. There's a moving
black and white line that borders my image. There are also moving
black-and-white striped areas near my arm, and random white spots that sparkle.
I tried using the eraser tool to remove the black-and white patches, lines and
spots, but after erasing them, they re-appeared. Another time I followed this
procedure, the white areas were either more pronounced or there were
orange-brown streaks bordering my photo.

Is there a way I can efficiently remove the white debris in GIMP, whatever it's
from, so the background is completely transparent, without having to take
another photo of myself against a different background, e.g. a white one? It's
important that I get this right as I want to place my photo against a more
dramatic background image to display on my website. I'd be grateful for any
suggestions.


-- 
Accordeoniste (via www.gimpusers.com/forums)