I. LOVE. THIS. LENS. I know the bar is pretty low at this point for me, but I am imagining all the possibilities for it and it's so exciting :)

I took a few shots and played minimally in LR to sharpen and convert to jpeg. Learning that program is going to take me a while!!

Just using random object to play with DOF

This one's kinda blah to me... Maybe because it's blah outside? He sort of blends into the background.

What do you think? Are they complete crap? Feedback appreciated!

Cute babies!  I think mostly they need help in composition. Yeah, the flatness of the bottom pic is due to the overcast day but often, that can give you the best light to capture details. You can always warm it up and pop the contrast a bit to get it to "sing". Also, overcast images look great in BW. The composition of it is just awkward but hey, not bad just not quite there.

On the owl, it's the super bright white window that's throwing it off for me.  Only because it's not helping the image. Sometimes blown out backgrounds are great but for this one, you could rescue it a bit just by cropping it vertically to the owl. If you wanted a more off center composition, I would just adjust initially in camera so that you just fill the back ground with the tree and lights. PURTY. ;)

On your Bassett, this is the best one.  I would be tempted to get less lines going across the image (back of the chair).

The one thing you will have to pay attention to with the faster lenses and dogs is that I see a lot of people focus on the eyes and get the muzzle all out of focus. You didn't do that here so kudos!

Thanks, Doolittle! Yeah, I'm totally clueless about composition most of the time! I did actually have one of the owl that was cropped with just the tree, but the owl wasn't very sharp so I didn't like it as much. Figures! Haha. I'm reading all I can get my hands on, so I really appreciate the feedback!

I can totally feel your excitement!  I remember my first nifty fifty shot as if it were yesterday.  I remember thinking, AAAAH this is why people are into photography.

Your owl shot reminded me my very first nifty fifty shot I got, and I was hooked ever since -

This picture just screams "first raw shot", to yellow, underexposed, and not sharpened. LMAO!!!  Anyone else noticed those traits in unprocessed raw shots?

@Gator, the last shot of yours is cute!  I'd crop it so there's less of the background.  And if you play with contrast a little bit, the black will be darker and the photo will pop.

@Gator: I love that hound pic!

And I love the nifty fifty lens, too :-)

@doolittle: It's funny that you said that about the focus. When I first started shooting my pup, I focused on his eyes, too. Then one time my camera auto focused on his nose and I loved the way the photo turned out. It just looks so real, like I could touch his wet nose. LOL!

Ok, I just played a little and made some changes to the last one in LR. Just out of interest, more than anything... I played with contrast and changed the cropping & color (obvs) - thoughts? It's still kinda flat to me, but I like it better than before. I'm also just learning the software, so I'm sure there are some effects I haven't learned to utilize. Next time I'll pay more attention to in-camera composition! :)

I do like it more now!  Part of the intrigue is how his fur is mimicked by the bokeh leaf background. Interesting!

You will have to be careful when increasing contrast that you don't lose detail in the darkest parts (or lightest parts) because you are starting to lose his eyes here.  You might play around with the brush tool in LR and just dab a bit on his eyes to bring the light back up in them.

Thanks! See, I didn't even know there was a brush tool! Haha, I'm gonna have to try it now!