Before You Edit Your Photos
Before you start editing photos, you'll need to learn the basics. Familiarize yourself with the Photoshop interface and how to get your photos into the program.


Photoshop Interface
If you're unfamiliar with Photoshop, now is the time to get the lay of the land.
Menu Bar: This is located at the top of your screen. It has no graphical buttons, just the words File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, and Help. In this guide, we'll only use the first four.

Adjust Levels in Your Photos
It's always a good idea to check a photo's levels before you do any other editing. When photos are backlit, lit poorly, or overexposed, the colors may not look quite right. Sometimes this is very obvious, but other times it's hard to tell, so always check your photo's levels. This will help you make the colors in your photos look their best.
With your image open in Photoshop, find and click Edit in the menu bar.
Point to Adjustments > in the drop-down menu and leave the cursor there for a second.
In the menu that pops up (usually to the right), click on Auto Levels.

Fig. 3: Auto Levels in the Menu Bar
Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows.
Alternatively, you can press Shift + Apple + L on a Mac or CTRL + L on a PC to use the Auto Levels function.
You should notice a change in the appearance of your photo. If you don't see a noticeable difference, it's okay. It just means your photo looked good right from the start.


Toolbox or Toolbar: This is a palette that usually appears on the left side of the screen, but can be dragged to any location. It contains various tools, including brushes, zoom, marquee select, and the foreground and background color pickers.
Layer Palette: This window can usually be found in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It contains the layers in your image. Layers are like cellophane sheets on top of one another, and the Background Layer is like a sheet of opaque paper underneath them. It's ok if this concept isn't 100% clear yet, all we need to know for now is where to find the layer palette.


Opening Photos With Photoshop
Now that you're getting comfortable with what's on the screen, it's time to learn how to get your photo in there so you can start editing!
If your photos are in digital format already (i.e. taken with a digital camera), consult the camera's documentation to learn how to transfer them to your computer.
If you have photo prints, you can still edit them with Photoshop! Use a scanner to move the photos onto your desktop.
Once the photos are on your computer, group them in a folder. To make it easy, call the folder something simple like "Original Photos."
Then copy the folder's contents into a new folder. You may want to call this "Edited Photos."
Making this duplicate set of photos to work with means that if you make a mistake at any point in the editing process, you'll always have an original copy of your photo to go back to.
Now start Photoshop by double-clicking on the program.
Go to the File menu and select that you want to open an image.
Navigate to your "Edited Photos" folder (or to whatever you called it) and choose a photo.
Now you're ready to begin!


Reduce Red Eye in Your Photos
We all know the bane of red eye in photos. This culprit has ruined more photos than goofy grimaces, poorly timed blinks, and crying babies combined. Getting rid of red eye is easy with these instructions.

Fig. 4: Red Eye Before and After (CC photo by Nes Jumpman)
With your image open in Photoshop, make sure your Layers Palette is visible.
Usually the Layers Palette is visible by default in the lower right hand corner when you open Photoshop.
Check Before You Edit Your Photos' Figure 1 to see a screenshot of Photoshop, with the Layers Palette clearly indicated.
If you do not see the window, just click Windows in the menu bar, scroll to Layers, and make sure Layers has a check mark next to it. If it doesn't, click it once and the Layers palette will appear.

Fig. 5: The Layer Palette
In the Layers palette, go to the adjustment layer button.
This button is at the bottom of the window. It contains a half-black, half-white circle and displays a yellow box that says "Create new fill or adjustment layer" when you move your mouse over it.
Click the adjustment layer button.
Select Channel Mixer from the menu that comes up.

Fig. 6: Creating a Channel Mixer Layer
A box called Channel Mixer will open. Set the Red slider to 0%, and the Blue and Green sliders to 50%. Click OK.

Fig. 7: The Channel Mixer Window
Now the people in the photos look like bluish-gray-skinned ghouls. Don't worry, they're supposed to! They'll soon look like their regular selves again.

Fig. 8: Using the toolbar
At the bottom of the toolbar (the long thin palette on the left), set the foreground color to black.
In the toolbar, select the brush tool.
If the red eyes are hard to see on your monitor because they're too small, go to the toolbar and select the zoom tool.
Zoom in on the eyes in the photo by clicking on them.
Select the brush tool again when you're done.
Go back to the Layers palette. There should be a Background layer and a layer called Channel Mixer 1. Make sure the layer Channel Mixer 1 is selected by clicking it once.
Paint the parts of the eyes that looked red before item #4. They should turn red again.
In the menu bar click on Image. Move your mouse over Adjustments in the drop down menu just like last time. Click Invert in the menu that comes up on the right. We fixed the red eye!
Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows.
If you see a red ring around the newly-fixed eyes, we can fix that too.
First make sure the Channel Mixer 1 layer is selected (click it once).
In the main toolbar, make sure the foreground color is set to white.
You will have to change it, since it was set to black a second ago.
Select the paintbrush tool from the toolbar, and carefully paint the red ring. You should see it change to the correct eye color as you paint.
In the menu bar click Layer. Click on Flatten Image at the bottom of the menu.
Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows.