Canon lens EF 50mm F/1.8 ii?

Hello -
I recently purchased the Canon EF 50MM F/1.8 ii and 90% of my shots look really bad - out of focus, blurry, hazy, and not crisp. I had such high hopes judging from the reviews and thought this lens would be the answer to getting pro-quality portraits.
I'm trying to get very crisp clear street style shots of a model. I've tried shooting in aperature priority, full auto, and full manual and I still get better pictures on my iphone. I shoot on a Canon T2i. I don't understand if its the gear or if its something I'm doing wrong, please help.
the attached picture is what I'm trying to accomplish -

The answer to pro quality portraits is more about skill than equipment, although it is also wrong to say that the equipment has absolutely nothing to do with it.

What you're describing could be one of a few things.

The first is focus. One thing to consider is that the area in focus at f1.8 is pretty slim. If your focusing is off by even a little amount, it will make a difference to the picture. Shoot stopped down a bit (f4, 5.6, etc) and see if that doesn't make a difference. Try using live view on a tripod and magnify it if you can to really get the focus dead on.

Alternatively (but less likely) there's a mirror alignment issue with your camera, and it's affecting the autofocus.

Then there's your shutter speed to consider: too slow and you get blurry shots. For a 50mm lens, go for at least 1/50 or faster.

Hazy could be down to the atmospheric conditions you shoot in, or it could be that there's some gunk on your sensor and/or lens.

If you can post up a photo with the EXIF data intact, it may be possible to get a clearer idea of what the problem might be.

I will add to it somewhat.

As said, if you are trying to shoot at f1.8, your focus has to be dead on perfect. How are you controlling focus? If you are letting the camera take over full auto focus point, then that is nothing but problems. Set the camera so only the center focus point is active. Place that point on the eye that is closest to you. Half press the shutter to achieve focus, hold at half press, recompose, then shoot.

For shutter speed, you really need to be at about 1/125 or faster to be sure there will be no blur due to camera movement.

Stopping down any lens from wide open always gives the sharpest result. Even using f2.8 would be an improvement over f1.8 and will give you a little more depth of field to work with, (though still with an out of focus background.

It is not impossible that you have an equipment issue, but my real hunch is that it is a technique / skill issue on your part. Set up something outside and practice practice practice until you can do it correctly before trying to shoot people.

Set the focal length at the highest setting (such as 11) and then set the aperature so that the image is clear.

Set aperture mode, set aperture to f/5.6, set focus mode to "One-Shot" as per page 66 of your manual. Aim at her face, press the shutter release half way down, reframe the subject, wait for focus confirmation, shoot. If this comes out blurry, and there's nothing on either end of your lens, contact Canon about repair.

Page 47 of your manual lists 4 things that could be screwing up your focus.

There are so many things that could be causing your problems. Here are a few:

1. Failure to select an aperture to give sufficient depth of field for the entire subject. No use setting it at f/1.8 if your subject is not all at the same distance - this is the usual one that most beginners fail with. They immediately think they need to set the lens to f/1.8, without realising the depth of field will be very narrow. Try f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6 instead.
2. Motion blur - subject moving, insufficient shutter speed. Get more light, set higher shutter speed.
3. Camera shake, insufficient shutter speed, get more light, set a higher shutter speed or use a tripod.
4. Failure to focus on the subject, you may need to set your autofocus to centre point focussing
5. Not enough light for optimal auto-focussing. Cameras need decent light to focus automatically. Use manual focus if you must.
6. A problem with your camera's autofocus (the least likely).