Tamron 60 owners, can you share your portrait samples ...

Well, I do, but I'm not sure they're going to be too much help. It's not that the lens is poor - it's that these were shoot at ISO 3200, which is pretty bad on the 50D (even after noise reduction). Have a look at the last 6 shots in this gallery :
http://www.pbase.com/cjed/parlourkats2012

More representative are these few at a more reasonable ISO 200 and almost wide open :

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Check out my galleries (lots of macros) at :
http://www.pbase.com/cjed