Hey Kennie !
I started a few days ago like you and i must say than, tho i discovered photoshop at the same time, here are some pieces of advice i drew from my experience :
For the Hue/Saturation : To find a good color i first use my eyes, then some logic. Compare the two palets of color ( the source and the one you're working on ) then compare the distance between the two " circles " ( the circle who indicate the " place " of the color in the cube )
Saturation make the circle go in diagonal of the the cube ( if you drag the saturation to the right the circle go to the up right for exemple )
Then the luminosity make the circle go up and down.
So with that knowledge you can manage your color chosing more easily for the first exercice.
For the second the level and the curves its a little bit more tricky.
When the level allow you to change the luminosity with more easiness it its " unprecise " but the curves who is much harder to use is faaaar more precise but require a lot of time to use.
What i recommend you first is to get the " most " of the work with the level first ( like if the source image is really bright and your working on one who's really dark try to first use the level to make it a little clearer THEN use the curve to adjust )
Dont hesitate to watch closely the environnement ( the cloud etc.. are a good indicator if you can see the line of the cloud or not etc.. ) it indicate you the level of the light and where it come from.
Dont hesitate to use the Saturation tool ( Ctrl + U ) when you're doing the levels and curves things to see if the color are close to each other ( with the little cube )
Then for color balance, i found the perfect one in 5 min, just tinker slowy and with precision there is a lot of red and yellow in the picture so you know you have to focus on those one but if you focus too much on them the purple and greend and black think will appear too bright, so dont hesitate to insist on the red and yellow color so you can then adjust a bit with the other one !
And lastly what i did was just using the tools in the order we learned them in the exercice :
First use the Saturation to try to match the color as close as you can
Then use the levels and curves to find the right luminosity
Finally use color balance to try to adjust it !
Hope that will help you !
