Is There Anything I Could Do To This

Hello all, first post! Anyway, I have had my Rebel XT for about a week and have been playing around with everything. The last SLR I had was a Minolta 7000, so I am a bit behind in knowledge and know how. Well I was at a parade tonight and I shot this:

I am no pro but, I think you have to many negative things working against you to make it what you would like it to be. Sorry man.

You were up against it with the level of light. What ISO did you use? In dark conditions like that sometimes you have to bring the ISO right up in order to get a fast enough shutter speed to prevent camera shake. As well as a high ISO try opening up the aperture to get more light in.

Is she single? Seriously though, at ISO 1600 I am thinking that the XT is at its limit of usability (for ISO related noise). I don't know for sure though, because I don't have an XT. You could probably fix the noise issues up, though. What cannot be fixed is what appears to be an error in focussing. Sorry for being blunt, but I don't know if this image can be "fixed" to return an acceptable result. Keep shooting though, the more shots we take the better the outcomes!

Cheers, Craig

I'd crop the empty top and the distractions on the left for a start. It's not sharp - so go with that and try the Orton effect to get a soft, not-quite real feeling. It may not be want you were hoping for, but it's an image at least.

Thank you, I believe I set ISO at 1600. I started playing with it and I got some of the noise out. I should have shot more, its not like I am paying by the shot! PCthug thank you for the edit!