The way I had my self portrait edited before I considered the rules more closely. I didn't want to push the editing rules by removing the background and adding a little negative space, but this is how I would've liked my self portrait to look.
I knew when I entered it that it was far from perfect, but I never had another sunny day that had the light level I needed to reproduce this.
It was hard to force myself to leave all the freckles and the skin texture in. Ack! :)