Hi there. I just recently took some pics of a friend of mine outside and it was pretty dark. Actually, it wasn't even that dark, but it was dark enough to where the autofocus wouldn't work. I had to turn on my flash, use the red beams, then turn the flash off to cheat the system.

Is there a good way to get through this?

I have an XTi with a Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens.