::starting to learn photoshop::

I have come to an important conclusion.  I am not the only person that that finds the thought of starting to learn photoshop overwhelming and easy to avoid.  But beginning to learn some of the tricks is not as hard as I thought.  Most people don't get it either, so if you go on google and type "photoshop brightening eyes" you will get about 15 different tutorials.  I think my goal is to start small and work my way up.  So - so I have two things I want to learn how to do.  Lighten the bags under eyes (Lily has allergies that can make her eyes have bags) and to place a subtile vingette around the images.  I got the answer to vingettes via this link and I went to Kristen Duke (a photographer that I adore) to figure out how to lighten raccoon eyes.  


Here is my before -

Here is after - 

So the important question - does it look better?  Is it still natural?  I like it.  So I will do my images like this, but what do you think?