This image doesn't look very wrong. But wait until it's edited.

First duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl+J.
Then open the curves. image->adjustments->Curves or Ctrl+M.

Make an "S-shape" with the curve. This makes the Highlights lighter and the shadows darker which adds more contrast to the whole image.

Look! That difference is already HUGE!

Next open up the Levels. image->adjustment->Levels or Ctrl+L
Drag the sliders to something like this. This adds even more contrast.

Open up color balance. image->adjustments->color balance. And drag the sliders to something that looks just right for your image.

The eyes looks a bit dark but that will be fixed now. Make a selection around the eye using lasso or pen tool.
Then right click inside the selection and choose "feathers" give it an amount of 3. This will make the selection a bit softer.

Then open the curves again. image->adjustments->curves and make the eye as light as you want.

The hair has a lot of BOH (blown out highlights (the highlights don't have any details at all)) this is easy to fix. First make a selection and give it a feather of 15 as in step 7.

Open up the curves once again and drag it downwards to make the middletones darker.

11. Now we will fix this "baby-acne" This is done by opening the tool "smart healing brush".
Now choose a soft brush and a good size by rightclicking anywhere and then just press on what you want to remove.

Smooth as a baby butt :)

Now make a selection around the lollipop. Add feather if the object has a soft edge.

Drag down the curve to give it more contrast.

Press Ctrl+alt+c to open up this dialog. Make sure "relative" is checked and insert a number. 0,5 cm in each worked good on this image.

Now you have a 0,5 cm frame arond the whole image.

That difference is HUGE!

There you have one good image. This effect works for almost all photos.

This can also be done with adjustment layers and layer masks, but this was made in photoshop CS3.

Good luck choppers!