bsmith52,

Lets put image 1 on the bottom of the pile, it is too far gone, it may not be worth considering. Looking at image 2, it had potential just before pressing the shutter button.

The task here is to better balance the exposure between the bright background and the shaded subjects. You can do this with Neutral Density filters (ND), if your external flash has enough light power to overcome the ND effect. With a ND filter in front of the lens, the camera will meter the light coming through the lens, the background light and the reflected light from the flash. If the external flash is powerful enough to overcome the ND effect you might get a good overall exposure.

Another alternative is to use the computing power of the camera and a ETTL flash. The technique here is to use the camera to expose for the background, and the flash to expose for the subjects. The camera will measure the light reflected from the subjects through the lens(TTL) and control the flash duration for exposure.

I do not own your model of camera, but the settings are similar and you should be able to find exact information in your camera owners manual.

We will concentrate on your camera's built in flash, an external flash will work the same as long as it is ETTL capable.
1. Turn on camera.
2. Make sure flash is enabled.
3. Set camera Mode Control to Program (Not Auto).
4. If you have Exposure Lock (Back button exposure lock) use it to measure and lock the exposure for the background).
5. Set camera exposure metering to Average, or Center Evaluative measurement.

When you are ready to capture the image, perform the following:
1. Pop up the camera flash head.
2. Using the viewfinder make a rough composition of the subject to photograph.
3. Move the center spot of the viewfinder over to the bright background.
4. Press the back button exposure Lock button to lock in the exposure value for the bright background.
5. Recompose the viewfinder image and place the center spot on the ladies eyes.
6. Depress the shutter release button half way down. (This is Focus Lock).
7. Recompose the viewfinder for a final composition and depress the shutter all the way down.

Technically what this has done is to preset the camera shutter speed to expose for the background. Set the camera flash to expose for the subject. Set the focus for the ladies eyes. and captured a well balanced image over a bright background.

Practice this method with your on board flash, it is a lot easier getting used to all the steps than trying to use an external flash, sync cord, and flash bracket. Once you get used to the process you can move up to the big external flash system.

When you get used to using the fill flash on your camera you may want to experiment with Exposure Compensation for the background. You would start with a -.63 Ev cor the background, this will under expose the background by 63% of one stop.

Good luck,

Michael G