Various embodiments of methods and apparatus for removing unwanted background color from a border region surrounding a foreground object in an image in order to composite the foreground object of the image with a new background image are described. Embodiments of color decontamination for image compositing may accept an image and an alpha matte corresponding to the image as input. In some embodiments, estimated foreground colors are determined for pixels in a border region between the foreground and the background of the input image. In some embodiments, the input image may be created by down-sampling a higher resolution image and pixels with estimated foreground colors may be up-sampled. In some embodiments, a composite image may be created based on the input image, the alpha matte, the estimated foreground colors of pixels in the border region and a new background image. In some embodiments, a texture preserving luminance blending operation may be performed using the estimated foreground colors for pixels in the border region to create refined foreground colors for pixels in the border region. In some embodiments, a composite image may be created further based on the refined foreground colors for pixels in the border region. In some embodiments, parameters controlling the creation of a composite image may be set in response to user input.