Positioning wouldn't have helped. When your shooting under mid day sun, you're going to have shadows. The solution is a reflector or fill flash. A reflector won't always give you enough, tho. All in all, from a technical perspective, they are the best you've posted so far. #2 is slightly overexposed, as you can see from the blown areas on the white shirts.
These are the last I have and the last ones I did. I dont have a reflector and didn't think about one. The last one I did not edit at all color or crop might have with #2 not sure. Thanks
Fill flash would be more effective than using a reflector.
Even better is to keep your subjects out of direct sunlight. If you do not have open shade available, but want the background to be sun lit while still having total control over subject exposure you have to diffuse the direct sunlight falling on the subject, thereby creating your own open shade.
Dappled sunlight is worth avoiding at all costs, but again diffusing the light allows you to create your own open shade.