A conferencing endpoint selects a background for a conferencing system. The conferencing endpoint captures an initial series of images of a foreground object in front of a background image, and segments at least one frame of the initial series of images into the foreground object and the background image according to a first segmentation technique. The conferencing endpoint generates one or more test backgrounds and evaluates the test backgrounds according to a second segmentation technique. The conferencing endpoint selects a final background from the test backgrounds for segmenting a subsequent series of images according to the second segmentation technique.