Critique on PS changes

I would like to get an honest critique on the changes that I made to an image taken over the weekend. The "before" is straight out of camera. The "after" is after Lightroom & photoshop adjustments.

They have a white edge around them, kind of as if they were cut out of cardboard. Is this also visible on the full size image? It could be a result of the adjustments you made, or it could just be the resizing/sharpening algorithm.

Exposure on the parents looks fine, kids are a little overexposed on the 2nd one.

You might consider bringing back the blacks on their clothing and I'd crop it differently.
Here's a quick edit to see what you think.

As others have pointed out, there is the white outline of the family, which makes it look like a cut out. I would also warm up the mom's face a bit since her face was in full shade while the others got a bit of sun on them in the original. I would also lighten up the clothes of the parents.

Here is a quick edit. Cleaned up grass, cleaned up water, darkened BG, lightened family using Nik Color Efex Pro, warmed woman's face.
Image cretiques: Would like to not have had their feet cut off and the girl looking away from the camera.

That's better. Are you using Lightroom? I've found the local adjustment brush good for this kind of thing. I'll set a brush up for recover shadows, with a large feathering and just brush it in.
This way avoids the halos a bit more.

Dan Kearley wrote in post #16363502
That's better. Are you using Lightroom? I've found the local adjustment brush good for this kind of thing. I'll set a brush up for recover shadows, with a large feathering and just brush it in.
This way avoids the halos a bit more.

I used Nik Color Efex Pro4 for most of the editing, cloning was done in photoshop. NCE has both brush applicators and control points. I prefer control points since they are quicker.

Thanks everyone! This feedback has really helped. I went back and did some more edits on the photo. Hopefully it turned out better.

The 'aura' could be from oversharpening with too much radius or perhaps from using a selection tool without enough precision.
I tried the clone stamp tool to remove most of it.

http://trailguy.smugmu​g.com …/0/L/after-2%5B1%5D-L.jpg