IronPile

EDIT: I got some good help from somebody online with this article http://www.swedesignz.com/photoshop/Image_Coloring. It enabled me to color in the dress, necklace, and eyes only, without worrying about the hair(I changed the hair too but it didn't work well). It also helped me get rid of the background with virtually no accidental removal of the arms. I'm still struggling with how to add some sort of filter. My results, albeit lo-res versions, are at the bottom.

Hi, I'm new to these forums and fairly new to Photoshop(and can do panoramics but that's about it). I'm hoping I can get some help on a project that seems pretty advanced for me. Looking through some topics here, you all seem wonderfully helpful, or at least more helpful than the gamefaqs folks, which probably isn't saying much. Anyways, on to the question:

I took a black and white photo of my wife. She had on a green dress and necklace combo on and I'm trying to do a color overlay on it, as well as trying to remove the background, and add some sort of old timey kind of haze thing.

I've been working on the overlay/background for the past hour and I'm just not having much luck. I'm proud of the overlay except for this one part near her left shoulder where her hair is in the overlay because it's on the dress. I'm not sure about how to procceed from here.

1) How can I make the overlay exist on her dress but not the tuft of hair lying there?

2) How can I remove the background easily? The magic eraser keeps erasing her arm because of the tolerance. Too little though and I have to go pixel size to erase it, and I'm not good there.

3) How can I add some sort of haze to the picture?

I really want step-by-step help from somebody who can spare the time. I don't want it done for me, and with all the people always saying "Do my work for me," I don't want to add to that mess.

Here's the original image(the images are about 255kb. Also, these are just quickly uploaded versions. The hi-res copies are still on disk and usable, just so you don't think I only have these low res versions):
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y24...i/CIMG0055.jpg

Here's what I've worked with so far(I've done more but due to PS not allowing me to infinitely backstep and me not saving often enough, my background work has vanished):
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y24...hdressmess.jpg

Also, I'm reading through Photoshop CS All in One Desk Reference for Dummies. I'm finding it helpful but not particularly useful. Are there any recommended books for newbies like me that can take me along? Thanks again