Eerie Result

[AntZ]

I'll admit this shot was a bit of an accident or at least not exactly what I had in mind. It was my daughter's Confirmation/Holy Communion on the weekend. The available light just disappeared on me and with a maximum aperture of 4.0 focusing was almost impossible, so I could not experiment too much. I was fortunate to have a speedlight 580EXII, but balancing the amount of light on white foreground and dark background was not really possible and I had to back the flash off to stop blowing out the dress.

I quite like the result as an "artistic" image, but think it is a little eerie for the occasion. I am interested in any thoughts on the image "as is" and how to improve it as an image for the occasion. I am also interested in how to improve it as an artistic image and maybe make it even more spooky.

Thanks in advance.