Shooting in low light - indoor and outdoor

[astrogeorge2]

I am new at this.

I have a Rebel XT 350D with a Tamron 28-300 and a UV filter

What should I being looking at as far as settings.
Out doors in the evening, I tend to get out of focus shoots when objects are out of built in flash range.
Indoors at on stage concerts I get out of focus shoots taken from the back of the room. In gym's I get washed out shoots also many tend to be out of focus.

I have been shoot in Automatic mostly but I am starting to try the manual settings (mostly learning what the heck its all about, the camera book does not help with any pointers).

What would be a good way to learn? A good book, a class, hunt & peck?

[ssim]

It would seem that you have ascertained that the automatic mode is not working for you. I tend to shoot in Av mode almost exclusively and then just keep an eye on the shutter speed. If the shutter speed falls too low then I will adjust either the aperature or the ISO to keep it high enough.

I don't any experience with the lens that you are using. I would try shooting a few frame in auto foucs and then try a few on manual focus. You don't say how low of light you are shooting in but remember that there has to be something of differing contrasts for it to find focus.

[PhotosGuy]

These should help:
Exposure explained: Three gateways for light.
http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/enjoydslr/p_2_005.html
Exposure - Low Tech Tips
http://www.photonhead.com/exposure/
SimCam
http://www.photonhead.com/exposure/simcam.php
Virtual Camera
Cameras Interactive aims to help novice photographers grasp the main concepts of SLR photography.
http://www.camerasinteractive.com/index.php#

[DocFrankenstein]

Change the lens. 50/1.8 is going to let in almost 16 times more light than your tamron on the telephoto end. this will increase your shutter speed 16 times and will lower blur.