Any help appreciated

[wwwon]

This is my first post. I just purchased the Canon 40d with the 17-85 lens.

I am a complete newbie to digital SLR's so any tips and / or criticism is welcome.

These are a couple of shots of the ski team I coach. It was very overcast so they seem a little dark.

[jorgemonkey]

Welcome!

When you're shooting in the snow, you'll need to set your exposure comp to +1 or so. THe camera sees the snow as being a middle grey, which is why the exposure was off.

Composition wise they look great.

[rovowen]

There are others that could give better advice them I.
I looked at your histogram and you do have it too dark. it is toward the left side.
Since it is sking and they are moving fast, I don't think I would lower your shutter speed of 1/1000. Have you tried to change your exposure compusation? But you could open your aperture wider, instead of f/9.0 you could use f/7 or 5.6 and see if that moves your histogram more to the right and lighten the photo.
If not then you could up your ISO to 800
Normally your setting would have been good but it being overcast caused some of the problem.

[JSPhoto]

When I have shot in the snow I usually set my exposure off the subect and forget the snow, it may get blown out but at least the subject isn't too dark

JS

[berrywise]

When I have shot in the snow I usually set my exposure off the subect and forget the snow, it may get blown out but at least the subject isn't too dark

JS

Overcast days are great because the shadows are not as harsh and the light will be pretty much the same wherever you are on the hill. Like JS said meter off someone's face (doesn't have to be the person racing but could be someone standing near you) then use that exposure for your shots.

A note about histograms is that when shooting on an all white backdrop your camera is not going to read it like an average scene so be leery of trusting it completely. I believe Seb did a good write-up on this site. Maybe someone has the link.

[mn shutterbug]

Or, you could take a meter reading off the palm of your hand, if it's in the same light as the subject. Then, if you don't want blinding white snow, open up 2/3 to 1 stop.

[wwwon]

Thanks for the help everyone.

They are racing again this weekend so I can try your suggestions out.