@mylesp and @picasso
Instead of trying to answer every question or disagree with some of the comments posted, I'll tell you what I think.
1. You guys don't know how to use your gear. Whether is not knowing where to aim your focus points to difference and purpose of each setting. I know is exiting taking pictures and that most people see impeccable images that we want to duplicate, but realistically, it's very hard. If you guys continue to be out of focus, the easiest solution is to bump the f/stop and focus in between the eyes. However, doing this will limit your ability to be creative and fully use your lens/cameras capabilities.
2. You guys are lacking the fundamentals. F/stop (what they do) - Shutter (What they do) - ISO (What they do). Although all have to do with how much light gets into the sensor - you need to use them wisely. Once you learn how to use these and when to use one over the other, I can guarantee you that your images will come out better.
3. There's no right way to compose an image. There are rules and guidelines that will render more flattering images. Some of the crops and compositions I have seen from you guys are not flattering and do not compliment the subject and overall fell of the images.
4. Learn LR, Photoshop, Gimp, Element, ACR, etc. Most of the images you see from fellow NT members or online aren't straight from camera. Whether it was minor color correction to full blown gradient, dodge and burn, etc. So don't go out and get discourage.
Lastly, ask question - but please try **** before you ask. You can ask all day as a shortcut but unless you are applying, what's the point. Hell, whats the point of asking how to do something if you haven't tried it and haven't seen if you need that help?
Again - you can ask all of us and all of us can give you a different answer. It is up to you to understand what you are doing and whats your gear capable of.
Real quick ...
This image could of have been taken at 1.2, 1.4 or 1.8 and the subject been really sharp. Now, knowing how to is a different story. It has to do with our focal length, distance to the subject, camera placement, AF point and a few other things. It seems that your subject and you were at different angles, you been at the bottom tilting your camera slighting up. This mean that although you are getting part of the subj in focus, the rest of the subj is not parallel with the camera. What this mean is that whatever is parallel with the camera and what the lens at 1.8 can render sharp the rest of the subj is out of focus. This can be remedy by many different ways .. again when you using razor thing DOF aperture you have to make sure everything is like (___I___) vices (__/__) in order to get the subj all in focus - of course the distance to the subj is also going to play a part as if you to close then just the focus area is going to be sharp and everything else out of focus. The further you get away - the better the DOF gets for the smaller aperture.
Not sure if these made sense ...
PS The only thing cheap that can translate in your images is the Bokeh (looks like trash) and the lack of deep contrast and colors. Everything else should be ok.
