Does your camera allow spot metering?  This will fairly well take the exposure metering to the area you do not want overexposed. ( Some depends on the camera and how large a spot it has, otherwise center metering with the smallest area allowed will help concentrate meter reading to particualr areas.0

I was doing some strongly back lit roses the other day and wanted light to come through the petals and show ok.  I did all the metering on the darker part of the rose facing me away from the light.  That worked pretty well  on a close shot with mostly cropped out background.  Metering the background gasve me a properly exposed background and a dark rose wiht tinges of light in petal edges.  Somewhere there is a nice balance to show the delicate tranluscent petals better than I have done so far.

 

I do have an old tutorial on spot metering here.  Some needs updating and I would certainly do some editing and change content if I wrote it today.  Still, you might find a hint or two there to assist.           Tom.

http://backroom.renderosity.com/~photo/Tutorials/thomas_haynes_%20spot_metering%20.pdf