Before and After: How I Edited

I thought I would show y'all how I edited one of my pictures!! :-)  I have Photoshop CS5 and love it.  Though I probably only know how how to use about .0000001 % of it.  I don't always use actions on my photos, but this time I did.  Most of the time I can get away with edits in Camera Raw!

If you don't know Photoshop just a tiny bit, you might not understand this very well.  But here we go anyways!

Here's the pic straight out of the camera.  (I didn't even touch it in Camera Raw - and I really wanted to.)

I asked Landon to make a mad face and this is what I got!  HA!  Sweet boy!

ISO 250 f/2.8 1/200 50mm

Manual mode, Spot metering, either Shade or Auto White balance (I can't remember)

The first thing I did was do a slight curves adjustment layer.  I pulled up the dot in the middle of the graph to lift the midtones just a bit.


Then I ran THIS action....but hid the black and white layer.  I also painted over the eyes with a soft white brush just a tad on the eye pop layer.  I think I even took it's opacity down to 40% or less!  Gotta see those beautiful handsome eyes of his!

I wanted just a little bit more saturation in Landon's skin and face so I ran Catherine Halsey's color pop action (which I cannot find to link) and painted some color onto his face with a soft white brush.  (Again, these terms may be foreign...they were to me at first, I've just self-taught over the past couple of years)

And VOILA!

It's not a huge change...just a little boost.  I believe there is no wrong or right way to edit a photo.  I think it comes down to personal taste. 

Like I said before, I don't know much about Photoshop!  I enjoy playing around with pictures sometimes and am sure I overdo it once in a while!

What are your favorite tips or tricks in photoshop?!?