Regency-era pictures

[Rebekah5280]

I had an awesome opportunity to work with a talented costume maker and her family. She created costumes from the Regency Era for her entire family and found this amazing location to try to recreate the feel from that time period. I'm happy with the shoot, it went great!
Here is a picture that I really love, BUT, I'm not sure how to make it work, or even if it works without cropping it down. I think blown up it might be ok, but I'm not sure. What are your thoughts?
Also, I know the image is soft-ish, The lens didn't lock in tight enough and this quick edit didn't help sharpen them up.

#1 original picture


#2 Crop that I'm playing with


#3 Process that I'm playing with


Here is a link to the "inspiration" pictures that she sent me. Regency Fashion - Favorite Portraits

 

[Designer]

What are your thoughts?

The setting is nice enough, I guess, but I think you should frame much tighter. In fact, you might not be able to get much of the trellis in the frame at all, if you framed the group tighter.

Also, we don't see their shoes, which I imagine are authentic to the period as well.

The dark background is blending with the gentleman's jacket.

Pose is nearly perfect, with my only suggestion is for the gentleman to get just a little tighter to the others.

 

[Light Guru]

#1 is taken from way to far away. it looks like some people photo bombed your photo of the green garden structure.

#2 & 3 the tighter crop is better but you still have them double framed and its really distracting. (they are framed once by the opening closest to them and again by the opening closest to the camera.

Did you take any shots that without the structure being so distracting?

 

[Rebekah5280]

Here are a couple others that I took.