CS3 Help!!

[Hardrock]

Ok so Im new to cs3 and I followed Rushnp774's post on the 16 steps for cs3. I used a raw image of my wife and followed all the way to step 9 so far. I have a couple of questisons. In cs3 raw after setting most all the settings to 0 the only other adjustment made is the exposure. So for all the other raw images that are brought into cs3 raw should I leave these settings alone and just adjust exposure? It seemed like those settings were pretty much his default and he only adjusted exposure. For the second question. When he used the dodge and burn He used the paint brush(I think) so what are the dodge and burn tabs used for. More importantely is the dodge and burn used for highlights and shadowing , and I guess you can use the paint braush to do this as long as you switch between white and black with a 50% grey layer? So far to step 9 my picture looks ok (not as good as his) and has shows grain in the background hopefully the rest of the steps will clear that up. Sorry if this is very confusing it was rather late and I dont really understand yet! Thanks for the help!