Thanks for all of your input. I will try to shoot with different lenses and different shutter/aperture combos to see if I get better results. It sounds like the camera is probably ok and post processing is a must. I probably want to keep my camera sharpness setting at 0 and do it in PS. The link for the sharpening tips is great! Has anyone discovered a great portrait lens that really makes a difference when shooting with the 10D (something affordable)??? How about those image stabilization lenses- do they help?
Yes, post-processing is necessary, though you can probably mass-process a lot of it. I'm not as good at that side of things as others, since I don't do commercial photography at this time. I think your camera is fine, although the lens may be a "little" bit soft - though not much, and it certainly could be helpful in some portriats if the image is a little soft.
As someone else mentioned, on the 10D, the 50 mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 are both pretty good for portriats, but the 85 mm f/1.8 is probably even better if you have the room to use it (it is a little longer). There's also an unaffordable 85 mm f/1.2L lens that is really designed for portriats, but it is very expensive. As well, there's the 100 mm f/2.0 that is reasonably priced and is known to be pretty sharp.
What focal length do you generally use for portriats with your present lens? That would be the length you would want to look for in a prime lens.
