First time shooting a band/event

[mysubaruimp]

Stage lighting is my arch nemesis. I was really unhappy with how my shots came out. It was a really small place, with no good backdrops behind the musicians. If there wasnt a window with blinds, it was a tv, or something else. It was a charity event to raise money for the Rochester Homemakers Assoc. Everyone that went had a blast.

Any tips for my next time out?

Here are a couple shots, Exif is intact on all of them. Shooting with the 50f/1.8 and the 70-200f/4L + 1.4x TC for some long shots. I pulled off a few hand-held 280mm shots at 1/50sec. I was amazed.

http://www.invictusmoto.com/Homemakers/Picture%20069

http://www.invictusmoto.com/Homemakers/Picture%20071

http://www.invictusmoto.com/Homemakers/Picture%20116

http://www.invictusmoto.com/Homemakers/Picture%20122

[DwightMcCann]

Learn to use Custom White Balance ... http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=157316, use a tripod or monopod, focus! We all have the same problems and these are the first steps. Next is faster lenses.

[René Damkot]

Whoa, tough: Daylight in the BG, red gels on tungsten on the faces.... I don't think CWB would have helped much; you'ld still have to make a choice.
I would have opted to get the faces as good as possible, so set a WB of K=2800 (as low as it goes). Alternatively, shoot RAW, and develop each image twice: Once for the musician, once for the BG...
I like the first 3 images. Nice expression on #2!

[mysubaruimp]

The lighting consisted of those stage lights with colored gels. The red was the most powerful, and aimed right at the performers. There were also green, yellow, and purple lights, but they kind of faded into everything. There was pretty bright daylight behind the performers. The lighting in the building was turned on, most of the lights were the standard incandescent bulbs in can lights. There were also flourescent lights at the bar area and to the right of the stage, but those were pretty much drowned out, I would think anyway.

In 90% of my shots, I had focus correctly on the performer, and shutter speed was high enough not to get shake, but the images look blurred in the faces. All I can put it down to is just the overpowering red lights. They washed out any detail. I think next time I should definately shoot RAW to have more control in the final exposure.

[René Damkot]

Yup, tough circumstances...
give this a try (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/restore-clipped.shtml) or use channel mixer to get some G/B info into the red channel: Adjustment layer, Channel mixer, Red channel: R=90%, G=5%, B=5% or so.