Help with flash exposure needed...

apologies for the delay, WORK how it spoils fun.

in all 3 photos you have very strong contrast and the subjects are the lesser of the total scene. What the flash is trying to do is expose the shadow areas which it did a fairly good job of.

Subjects less than 3m from the camera will almost always overexpose especially if they are right in front of the flash.

Your metering tries to get the best exposure for the entire scene it does not know what you want exposed and will sacrifice smaller objects to get a better overall exposure. Its better to point out what you want exposed correct and sacrifice the rest.

Use spot metering or center weighted metering then recompose. I prefer center weighted. keep in mind how quickly light falls off so meter on the closer subject to prevent over exposure on that subject.

think the most important part to remember is that your camera with all its technology is still just a robot no feeling no intelligence you need to point out the obvious and it will do its job. As in your photos fill the shadows look at the trees and shed in the background the camera exposed for that, compensating for the bright sky.

not 100% of the camera controls of the 1000 but most of the cameras can do flash compensation over and above exposure compensation. thats why I asked about your settings but it is set to 0 in the data you provided. Many moons ago I had a similar problem end I had a +3 setting and it took a while for me to realize im at fault not the flash or metering. Personal preference is a -1 value for fill flash and -2 for side lighting (flash compensation not exposure) looks a bit more natural to me.

Hope this helps and makes sense English is not my strong point.