Night shot Pre and PP C&C please

[PavementPilot]

We were out the other night talking a walk on main street. My wife said, theres my gift all ready to go with a bow too. I thought I would try a night shot from across the street. I used the flash for fill, but the distance to the subject was about 50 feet. I didnt have my tripod with me.

I did some PP with the backlight adding 25% 3 times to achieve this.

So along with the C&C, what other settings could I have used without a tripod. If I had my tripod, what settings would you suggest.

This is the best angle I could achieve but the tree to the left did get into the photo.

 

[nahtanoj]

i personally think it looks better before editing. the post edit picture really shows a lot of noise, especially in the top left green area.

 

[Bram]

Looks a little OOF to me.