Pictures that I took at a gathering

I took this pictures very impromptu, manual settings on the camera and I was using the thesame settings f4, iso 800,ss 1/50, flash using 430Ex facing the ceiling. I would like to touch up the picture, but dont even know what to do to touchup/fix. Just used content aware to remove the fact that the door on the left had labels on it.

The only other thing I can think of is perhaps concerting to Black & White, to hide the fact that the shot was taken by a door and it was dark outside.

Its an ok shot for a quick grap, I'm seeing some pp artifacts on the door, I would crop a little tighter to remove the hands and clone out the hoodie string.

Thanks for the comment, how do you remove the hoodie string. Also what do you think about converting to B&W, and are there any tips to make the picture look wow in B&W ?

Looks like you already did something to the door. Is the string such a big problem? It's a snapshot. That would be difficult to remove due to the thread pattern in the denim behind it.
As far as B&W, what software do you have to accomplish this? There are numerous presets for lightroom available.

Hi

I have photoshop cs5. What kind of preset would suit here

Removing the string is quite easy to do but what would be the point? The photo is what it is... a casual snapshot suitable for a social media site like Facebook. As a photographer it is your responsibility to pose your subjects as you prefer rather than try to correct flaws later.

Here I removed the color cast and attempted to bring back some color and texture to the blown out areas of their faces.

Thanks for this, how and what did you do. Do you have a tutorial somewhere ?
Also, in terms of touching up pictures espcially smooth skn tones. I have heard of a plungin called portraiture, I'm not a pro photo expert but just looking for a solution that doesnt involve much work but a simple set of clicks.

Any advice.
Thanks.

No, I don't have a tutorial. I cloned out the string, and used a Curves adjustment layer to correct the yellowish color cast caused by the mixed lighting (flash & possibly tungsten). Instead of attempting to use automated solutions I'd advice getting your photos right in your camera as much as possible, then learning how to use the basics of a photo editor. A plugin like Portraiture wouldn't help you get it right in camera.