Making a so so image look a lot better

I recently had to photograph a family under very challenging circumstances.  Weeds, distracting background, bright light, threat of rain.  Here's the SOOC image.

First thing was to open Adobe Bridge to correct the exposure and contrast.  I depend a lot on the Histogram to determine how far to go.

First thing to do is look at the Histogram (Red Arrow) and use the sliders (Blue Arrow) to get rigd of the flare and adjust the exposure.

To get the darkened edges, I use the FX tool in Bridge (Red Arrow) and make the adjustment using the slider (dark arrow) until I get the effect I need.  I tend to have a light touch when doing this as when I want a darker look, I'd rather use the Adjustment Brush.

To get a darker background, I use the Adjustment Brush (Red Arrow) and adjust the darkness by using the slider and paint the area I want darkened.  It's easier to use this and it's relatively quick and if you make a mistake, it's a simple matter to start all over again.

Now that the exposure adjustments are made, I open in image in Photoshop and start working on the background.  If there are straight lines, I tend to use the Spot Healing Brush.  You zoom in on the item, make sure the brush covers the area then paint.

The resulting image is this.  It still needs cleaning up so I might do smaller areas the second time around or use a clone tool or the Content Aware function.

To use the Content Aware Tool, I use the Marquee tool to select the area I want filled taking care to not select an area that I want remaining the same.

Once you have the marching ants, you use the <Edit> <Fill> <Content Aware> command and Photoshop will fill in the area with what's in the surrounding area.  You may have to do this more than once selecting smaller areas each time.

Eventually after some further work in the other areas of the image, You'll end up with your final image.

Go for it!