I agree with funcoflipper. And something more: if the sword is the focus, why not pull the camer closer to it? This way, you've got too much area which cries for something to focus upon. I took the liberty of cropping the pic, but it still lacks a clear and distinct focus, although in my view it looks a bit better. I also played with filters in Photoshop to make the sword shinier. BTW, not everything you have in a pic has to be in full view. So, we could see only a part of the parchments, only bottoms of the candleholders, and so on.

-- erlik