1. A method for processing an image of a scene of interest, comprising: receiving an original target image of a scene of interest at an image processing device from an image source device, the original target image exhibiting shadowing effects associated with the scene of interest when the original target image was captured, the original target image comprising a plurality of elements and representing an instantaneous state for the scene of interest; pre-processing the original target image using a modification identification algorithm to identify elements of the original target image to be modified; generating a copy mask with one or more mask regions representing the elements to be modified and one or more non-mask regions representing other elements of the original target image; receiving a baseline background model of the scene of interest at the image processing device from a storage device, the baseline background model comprising a plurality of elements and representing a baseline state for the scene of interest; processing the original target image in conjunction with the copy mask and the baseline background model; and using a foreground detection algorithm to identify elements of the original target image that exhibit attributes of a foreground without shadows.