Sunsets... and Silhouettes...

[MikeisEdge]

I was recently trying to get a rather close-up shot of some flowers backlit by the setting sun, while at the same time trying to leave the trees in the background as silhouettes... Although I the images would never turn out.

My question is, am I taking my meter reading from the wrong place? (The meter reading was just from the part of the sky my frame would capture when I shot the picture) And if so, where should I be taking the meter reading from?

Is there a specific exposure I should be looking to stay around? I was trying to keep my aperture above f11, I didn't want a blurred background.

Any help would be awesome. Thanks.

-Mike

 

[WesternGuy]

And the images are ???

WesternGuy

 

[Garbz]

It's hard to tell without being able to see the resulting and knowing why you don't think they turned out.