Horse and Lion in Amsterdam!

I know it's a bit dark but I'm more interested wether the synthesis

is ok. Any comments will be appreciated!

Overall good effort. From a technical viewpoint, the picture could have been sharper. Try use the "unsharp" tool after scanning and/or use tripod/monopod when shooting in low light situations. From a compositional aspect, I would have gone for either the horse or the lion but not both. I think they kind of compete for attention here and besides, they'd make excellent subject matters individually. Finally, I would have tried to go for a lower viewpoint. I reckon it would give more "impact".

Sharpness is definitely an issue technically. I feel like your proximity to the subject is a bit awkward. Like you're trying to crop out the background but it's not quite enough. Closer or farther away maybe? The relationship between the lion and the horse also feels a bit awkward. Once again a one way or another thing. Either viewed at more of a distance to allow some breathing room or perhaps to make the relationship between them more important somehow.

IMHO, the blur/softness doesn't work here.

The lion ? The horse ? The lack of sharpness or the very small shaprness diferences makes it very difficult to distinguish between the lead motive and the background.

 

Maybe a nice snapshot with a lot of good memories connected to it

Please resice your photo's to 5x7 inches @ 72dpi. It seems that you accidentaly forgot to scale dimensions when you reduced resolution.

 

Otherwise nice photo, with a a good defocesed effect.