Hi, Melissa!
The images appear well framed and the black background seems appropriate
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Your light looks okay to me, but the first image however appears quite a bit overexposed. I believe this has to do with the black background. When it fills such a large portion of the frame as in the first image it easily fools the cameras metering as it expects something more neutral. In the second image this is probably okay because the bloom fills larger part of the frame. Even with the new camera it could be a good idea to check the histogram after taking an image and dial in some exposure compensation if needed
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Dirt posting what lens you bought is actaully very helpful as I wondered what you were using and what the problem was. As this is a kit lens I now assume this is a concern about image quality? The kit lens should be reasonable, but At f/22 diffraction makes all images a bit soft, regardless of lens. If you combine diffraction with higher ISO the result wont be as good as it could be. For better image quality, shoot at lower ISO if possible and open up your lens a bit when you can.
My suggestion would be to take a few images at f/22 if you feel you need it for depth of field, but to also take a few images at f/16 or lower. If you feel that this gives you too little depth of field with the auto focus, you could try to adjust the focus manually, moving focus slowly a bit back and forth. This sort of focus bracketing is sometimes very useful. No need to look at the results at shooting time, these are just backup images, but they are very good to take. Later at home you can look at the result on your computer monitor and it will be much easier for you to see which one is best.
