Not that exposure is unimportant, but setting it is so much easier in
digital, where you don't have to wait for the film to be developed.

My pocket camera, an old Canon A95, has "evaluative","center weighted
average", and "spot".

There's a few ways of looking at this, since most digitals have less
range than negative film, you have to decide if you want to clip
highlights and block up shadows. That is a real possibility in such
harsh lighting as the OP is shooting in. But typically, you decide what
you want to be the same darkness as an 18% gray card and expose for that.

  All this is really moot with digital, as you just shoot, look and adjust.

  That is not to say that there aren't those who still use the zone
system on digital. Even if you don't use it, I think its important to
have some familiarity with it it.

  With all this said, there are many people shooting digital today that
make 2 or 3 exposures(with each exposure a couple stops different) and
reassemble them to get detail in extreme highlights and shadows. I've
just seen something similar done with focus, where the software picks
the sharpest bits from each exposure.

  Digital gives you the possibility of making a near perfect image.

  Myself, I just prefer not to shoot in such conditions.

  Jeff

  I just looked at what you shot. I think you did a pretty good job of
fixing these.

  With the backlighting you have, this is tough shooting.  Consider:

A) Fill flash.
B) Someone with a large reflector to fill the shadows (it can be almost
anything).
C) Shooting with the light, instead of against it.
D) Waiting for better light.

 It may be that only option A will be readily available. That is the
easiest way to fix this.

  Best of luck with your project.

  Jeff

OT, but I just looked at your HTML. Nicely done!

 Jeff