Damien Symonds

It looks like you've used a linear gradient instead of a radial one?

Are you familiar with this? http://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/10/shift-while-brushing.html

Oh gosh, it's really severe, isn't it?

Did you shoot raw?

Yes, it's incredibly destructive. Never use it.

Only use the Crop Tool, and NEVER during editing.

http://www.damiensymonds.net/2011/09/cropping-tutorial.html

NEVER use the Free Transform method. It's a very dangerous myth.

Great. Follow all the troubleshooting steps in my tute.

Which calibrator do you have?

No, sorry, I'm not taking on editing work at the moment.

Does this help?  http://www.damiensymonds.net/preventing-banding-in-backdrops/

Yes, essentially it's a laptop screen.

Download the PSD

It's the same gradient layer twice.  The bottom one is on "Multiply" mode, and I kept it hidden until I'd almost completely masked the top one.  Then I painted on its mask at low opacity to darken the background around the hair just enough to match the new background.

And the top layer is the noise layer.

It's not difficult, per se, but it's definitely not quick.

Would this be passable?

Not as such.  I'm happy to help, but I'll need you to post the actual photo, rather than a screenshot.

Looks fabulous, well done.

Just to check, you haven't cropped your PSD, have you?

What Brian means is that a Lightroom catalogue with no photos in it is best

I was a latecomer to Spyders.  I only started at 4.

I never had Spyder 3 instructions, sorry.

No, sorry, black is not feasible.  Very dark brown, or very dark grey, would be the best we could manage.  Would she settle for that?

You won't know until you try, I guess ...

As long as you nail the shallow depth of field, the editing is easy enough.

Download the PSD

Notwithstanding all of that, how does this look?

Before we start, I need to know that you are aware of the two differences that will make a significant difference between your photo and hers:

1. Hers has leading lines going towards a logical area of light in the background.  Yours does not.
2. Yours has lots of light area (snow) at the bottom of the photo, which hers does not.

As such, your photo can never have the same "feel" as hers.

May we see the outcome?

No it's not, look at the how the light is falling on her face.  In particular, look at the camera-left side of the mouth in Lisa's photo and in yours.

I would say that Lisa is using a much bigger light source that you are, but you would need to seek advice from a photographer about that.  All I know is that the angle of your light is too far around to the side.