Hmm. You might want to tweak your composition too, Eric. Even if you add dof to blur the skeleton, the image is too heavily weighted towards the center-left. In that area you have figure-figure-light-light-light. The right side of the image is broken; with the door frame and the geometry of it, you essentially have a blue 'strip' that cuts the image off, then to the right of that you have lights like your left border has. So your composition has action all in the center to left region, a blue zone of no action, and a lighted zone of emptiness.

 

Now this kind of compostion is a valid structure, but only in specific cases. Using these elements, the classic would be something like this; pulling the camera back so you see your focal point, your sorceress, in full length. Change her pose to where she is obviously in motion, and shift figures to where she is spinning towards the skeleton. The blue zone could be left as is by simply placing parts of another skeleton in the process of falling apart and to the ground; moving the staff out of that zone and placing a smaller lightsource in it would mate the two. The unbalanced compostion would then serve a dramatic purpose; your eye would go to the brightest thing first (which by contrast is the blue zone), register what is there, track to the next associated thing (the staff), then the sorceress, and how she's posed would aim your eye finally at her target. So the imbalance becomes the same imbalance you see in a dancer in motion. It becomes a snapshot of someone in mid-action.

Another example of unbalanced composing would be having your sorceress facing one direction at one end of the image, and having just the arm visible, almost grabbing her shoulder. The presence of the arm indicates that something her size is just out of viewing range, which establishes and -implied- balance to the image components. Implied is good enough, so long as it is carefully managed.

 

I rather like what my editor says on that issue; 'It sucks!' isn't a critique, its an opinion. Like assholes, everyone has one. And getting your shoes filthy, making loud, oderous, embarassing noises, and leaving a pile of socially unacceptable offal behind from a single orifice are traits that are shared by assholes and opinions alike'.