Please help with removing background from busy foreground

[treyking]

I need to remove this grey background from the picture.

Every selection tool I have tried also removes the fan guard as well.

Anybody have a painless way to do this without losing the integrity of the picture?

Thanks in advance

 

[hawkeye]

Any painless ways? Sorry but the answer is no, as far as I can see.

 

[iDad]

What I would suggest is making the white background similar to the gray behind the fan unless you want to take on some serious selection work.

 

[Hoogle]

You could use the blend if option and then play with levels, but on such a complex image you will have to sacrafice something either time or detail. Here is a quick example.

 

[Eddie Weditor]

Use Select -> Color Range. A fuzzyness level of about 50 seems to produce OK results