How do i take good photos at live gigs?

hi, i go to alot of live gigs and love to take pictures of the action on stage. my problem is when i use my digital camera on auto the pictures come out too dark and when i use it on night they come out blurs of light with no detail. is there a better setting to use or do i need a better camera? i also find the camera on my phone takes th best pictures at gigs but as it is only 2mp the quality when i print them out isn't the best, help!

all answers much appreciated

Hi there. I have been a pro photographer for 30 years. I mostly photograph sport, which presents similar problems to the ones you have at live gigs.
Digital cameras are great for this work.
Firstly, you should not use auto mode if this causes your flash to fire. Even professional flashguns can only light a subject up to a few yards away. Your flash lights up the area just in front of the camera and makes anything further away much darker. If you can turn your flash off, then auto mode should be fine. If not, you need to select a sports or action mode. This will freeze the action better and get rid of those blurs of light.

I think you'd probably get better results with a camera that has a lens that opens up to an aperture of f 2.8 or greater (smaller number). Since the venue will probably be pretty dark, you will probably want to use an ISO of 400 or 800 (or maybe higher). Just remember that the higher number ISO the lower the quality of the photos.

Also a telephoto lens would allow you to isolate the people on the stage.

I hope this helps you!

Just turn off the flsah and use the mode that allows u to capture pics at a faster shutter speed....u will need to combine the feature of aperture with this so that the pics taken in dark are not underexposed.
Refer to the manual of ur camera, it provides much more useful info....Try to go thru the manual mode and understand things...rather than auto mode..