Hi Marius,
In essence I like this photograph. Everything about it is just right, from the placement of the lily on the lower right-hand third through to the reflections gently meandering down the centre.
I also like the golden leaf that appears in the lower part of the frame.
Now… the one thing that ruins this image for me is the over sharpening. Sharpening can be useful in some situations, like getting a photo ready for printing, but it can also be too strong, to the point that it detracts from the image.
What has happened in this instance is that you have turned an otherwise gentle afternoon waterscape into a rather hard, mechanical finish and I think you have lost any chance of romance with the photo for the moment (hopefully you still have the original file tucked up somewhere on a hard drive!)
If you shot the image in RAW mode then I would suggest going back to the conversion stage and see if you can be gentler on the file. If possible try and save as much detail and colour as you can in the highlights. I would also go through and eliminate some of the small debris on the leaves; it is very distracting.
In the image below I have attempted to soften the image using the Oil Painting filter in Photoshop CS6. This is not my ideal final result for this photograph but if you go back to your original file you should be able to achieve a softer result.
Cheers for now,
Anthony.
Image Doctor's edited version
