There are a couple of ways to accomplish this.
In CorelDraw, the easist way is to apply a uniform transparency to your photo and adjust the opacity to your taste. Whatever color you background was will wash through the photo.
You can also put a white shape over the photo and apply your transparency to the shape.
If you are working in PhotoPaint, you can open your object docker and duplicate the photo (it will be on the background object). Select the bottom layer and color it all white, or all black, or what ever color you wish to wash towards. Then selecting your duplicated layer, you can adjust the slider that controls opacity until your photo washes out. If you delete the background layer, you end up with a transparent photo that can be placed onto any item.