I assume Elements has a lasso tool, and given enough time it will produce acceptable results, but you're prone to artifacting (jagged edges). If Elements has a pen tool, that gives you much smoother results but can be VERY time consuming. The pen tool creates a polyline that you manipulate with handles at each node and then can be converted to a lasso style selection, and is much smoother. Then you can just paint in a black background. To answer your question, for excellent results there is no easy way.