Good suggestions. But just to step back and be clear - what the OP is describing is a problem inherent in photography. The actual dynamic range of a real life scene like that far exceeds what any camera can normally record, or any monitor display, or any print show. Hence the various workarounds to artificially manipulate the scene into something that *can* be recorded/displayed/printed. Either by adding light to the darker partsof the scene while shooting (via fill flash), or by post processing to alter the relationship betwene light and dark in the photo after shooting (including the use of combined multiple exposures).
Personally, unless I have a strong reason to prefer a different approach, I'll generall shoot to overexpose the sky only slightly, leaving the subjects pretty dark, but then adjust the shadow levels in PP to try to achieve a believable yet effective balance.
Last edited by Marc Sabatella; 07-20-2009 at 01:14 PM.