Looking for advise about taking action pics at night with stage lighting

[EYEAM4ANARCHY]

Over the past year I've been taking a lot of entertainment type photos, which means a lot of them have been on stage, often of bands or performers, with low lighting in the room but lots of spot lights and things of that nature. Also because of the fact they are performing, there is usually a lot of movement. I've been using the "action" setting and probably 75% have come out well, but I've lost some good shots to blurry hands/faces because of sudden movements or bad exposures because of the uneven lighting. Is there anybody here that has experience with this type of photography that might be able to give me some advice about what manual settings would be best for getting good shots?

 

[fokker]

If 75% are coming out good then you must be doing something right, thats a good keeper rate if you ask me.

Personally, in those conditions I would go to all-manual mode or Av, generally on the largest possible aperture.

 

[Brian L]

What lens are you using? You will want a fast lens or a lens that can open to a wide aperture. Something like f2.8 or lower. I tend to use my 85mm f1.8 and have no problem giving a nice blurred background and stopping the action. The lens will be important here.

Shoot manual or av as stated. I do both but mostly stick to manual for the band shots. Use a flash but not always. Hope that helps some.

 

[maoparungao]

My experience is with film and I hope this could also apply to digital. What I do is I use fast film with a rating of ASA800. Then I use my available fast lens with an opening of 2.8 or 1.4. I set my camera on manual mode then I study the sequence of the lights on the stage before I take the shot. Then if possible I try to take tight shots of the subject. All shots are taken in available light. There might be occasional blurring but that's okay. Slight blurring connotes motion and is also great.