Before: I wanted to remove the ugly computers in the background, to soften up
the dark areas behind me, and to remove the stark white edge of a computer blocking
my shoulder in the lower left corner of the picture.
Luckily, I had another photo from which I could copy-and-paste the missing
shoulder.
After:
I then copied the head and shoulders to a higher layer, and placed a soft
gray background behind them. The real work was in blurring and blending
the edges to achieve a natural blend with the background. Click the image
to see a full-size view.