The soft focus works well for this photo. However, be careful about lens distortion when composing. In this image, the man's foot appears twice as large as his head and really pulls the attention away from the subject's faces. Back up and zoom in to prevent that.
I really like the composition on this ... with all of that white space. I wish his eyes were open, though. And having his foot be the closest thing to the camera really makes it look huge.
I actually like this one for this challenge, interesting composition. The guy could have a better expression on his face and some of the hilights on the top right may have been lost... a little tighter crop on the left may hide the slight distortion of the pillar.