For portraits I use an old Tokina AT-X 28-70 f/2.8 on my D7200.

On a crop frame it is equivalent to a 42-105mm lens which covers most of the popular portrait range.
It's big and heavy and a bit clunky but I just love the way it renders color, sharpness and bokeh.
AF is fast and precise (needs a Nikon body with AF motor) and it also has very little distortion.
This is one of those lenses I would definitely replace if it ever breaks.

I take all our passport photos (and my wife thanks me for it!).

Frame it so there is some room above the top of the head, about the middle of the chest and both shoulders are visible.
Also, make sure you take the picture of your subject against a plain white background.

I do some basic processing (brightness, contrast, sharpness, brighten the white background if necessary)
When I am satisfied with the results I e-mail the jpeg to Walmart where they crop it then print it to the correct size.

Here are some guidelines:
http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/photos/photo-examples.html

Refurbished is better than new for half the price!

I am on my 5th refurbished Nikon body and (I think) 9th refurbished Nikon lens.
Everything I received so far has looked and performed just like new.

My newest body (D7200) had 0 shutter actuations when I received it. The highest I think was around 400.
The other nice thing about refurbished camera equipment is that a technician has actually tested it and made sure everything works to specs.

Nikon gives a 90 warranty on their refurbished items and some seller add a 1 year warranty on top of that.

First of all there are 3 different versions of the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. The oldest is an AF-D with no focusing motor. Next newer one has a focus motor but no VR. Latest incarnation has a focus motor and VR. According to various test sources the best copies optically are the two older (non VR) versions.

I have the version with the focus motor but no VR which is on my D7200 pretty much all the time. I was able to get the lens new through Amazon (about 6 month ago) as a grey-market import for 200 bucks. At this focal length range I don't think VR is an absolut necessity and I much rather have the 2.8 constant aperture. The lens is very sharp from f/4 on (2.8 is a bit soft in the corners but usable!) and the built quality is better (metal mount) than the various kit zooms from Nikon. If I had to nitpick, auto-focus is not super-fast and somewhat noisy and the focusing ring turns when focusing.

My take on this is that for 200 bucks you get a very nice new sharp and decently built lens with a constant f/2.8 aperture. At this price point who cares if it accidentally gets dropped or dies in the next 5-10 years. If you order it through amazon you can even return it if you don't like it. For the price difference you could also get another lens like a nice prime.

The 17-55mm Nikon on the other hand reminds me of a Rolex watch. Sure it looks nice, it might hold it's value better and you can use it as a status symbol with your fellow gear snobs. But the question remains, should you spend all that money on that fancy watch if all you want to do is tell accurate time.

You can get a grey-market Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 with built in focus motor for $230-250.
This version doesn't have VR but at that focal length it's not really an issue.
It's a good, sharp, well reviewed lens and that's what I have on my D7200 most of the time.

http://www.amazon.com/Tamron-A16NII-17-50mm-Di-II-Aspherical/dp/B0013DAWPQ/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1465867083&sr=1-5&keywords=tamron+17-50

By going through amazon you can return it if you don't like it.

I also have the DX 35mm f/1.8 and it won't get sharp until you close it down to f/2.8 so there is no real benefit to this lens other than size.

I heard from several sources that it is very dusty in the canyon, kicked up from the groups of people getting herded through there.
So I think it would probably not be wise to change lenses while in the canyon.

Thanks, but I will wait for the full-frame model with the f/1.8 lenses...for that creamy, buttery BOKEH!

This is why I use (good quality multi-coated) filters on all my lenses.
Out of curiosity I did a number of test shots with and without a filter and I could not see any discernible differences.

Look, I don't doubt that with enough tinkering and practice you might be able to wrestle some reasonably decent shots from your old lenses.
From a practical standpoint though I now much prefer equipment that just wants to play nice with each other.

I have a lot of respect for old glass. These old lenses have a somewhat organic feel to them modern glass just can't match.
My old Tokina is a good example for that. It uses an old Angenieux design that was very successful and desirable in early zoom designs.
I just love the way it renders skin and how it's bokeh blurs the background.
In addition the autofocus is very snappy and accurate and therefore one thing less I have to wrestle with or worry about.

Can you please be a little bit more specific on what those "various reasons" are...and why they are not good?

I agree completely with Wayne!

Yongnuo flashes work very well and cost only a fraction of the camera brand flashes.

I have 5 Yongnuo YN-560 series flashes and they have not failed me yet. Should one of them get dropped and/or fail it goes into trash and I have a new one on order for 70 bucks the same day.

Dave, I completely agree with you...and I made exactly the same mistakes with my first DSLR the OP is about to make!

After I shot a few hundred pictures with my (then new) D5000 and a kit lens I wanted to get into portraits and that crummy 18-55mm kit lens certainly wasn't gonna cut it. So I purchased (after much research) a manual focus Rokinon 85mm f.1/4 with the focus confirmation chip already installed.

No problem I thought! Coming from a film SLR I (Canon A1) I was used to manual focus, so getting great shots would be a piece of cake! After starting to use this lens and getting many soft and blurry shots I really started hating this lens. The whole experience was extremely frustrating for me and, before throwing it against a wall, I finally got rid of it.

Now of course I realize where I went wrong. The cheap (pentamirror) viewfinder of the D5000 is dim and does not have a manual focusing screen like the earlier film SLR's. So you have to rely on the focus-confirmation dot, which turns out not to be accurate enough for a lens with a razor thin focus.

I guess Live-View could have worked but is very cumbersome to use, especially when you want to shoot portraits.

So, for the above mentioned reasons I would stay away from manual focus lenses on the Nikon D5xxx and D3xxx bodies. For consistent results you want to have at least a Nikon D7xxx or full-frame body.

Now I shoot portraits with my D7200 and an old Tokina AT-X Pro 28-70 f/2.8 that I found for a couple hundred bucks from a japanese seller on fleabay.
On the crop sensor the range is similar to a full frame 42-105 lens which is ideal for full to upper body shots.
The lens has the old screw drive autofocus which works well and is very accurate with the D7200's built-in autofocus motor.

I seriously doubt that!
Both cameras have a 24MP sensor so by cropping the D750 image you would throw away megapixel which results in less resolution, detail and sharpness.
Also, the D750 has a sharpness-robbing anti-alias filter while the D7200 has not.
And last not least when using (for comparison) the same FX lens on both cameras the D7200 would use the sweet (sharp) center spot of the lens and the sharpness of the D750 would fall off more drastically in the corners.

The main advantage of the D750 is that it has a brighter viewfinder, a tilting screen and less noise in low light.

I agree. the initial version was not much to look at.
Have you looked at the latest version yet?
They added basic editing now similar to ViewNX2 and it also includes a video editor..
It is much faster than ViewNX2.
I use it now to pre-select picture files (decide what I want to keep) after a day of shooting.

View NX 2 was the free software (Simple RAW converter, Photo editor and cataloging files) packaged with many older Nikon cameras
It is an old outdated (no longer supported) piece of software and I would not bother with it.

Capture NX 2 is Nikon's old photo editor.
It allows for fairly extensive photo editing and I think you can still purchase it but it doesn't support the NEF files of the latest Nikon cameras

ViewNX-i now has superseded ViewNX2
Both apps share roughly the same functionality and features.
ViewNX-i can be download for free from the Nikon website, is frequently updated by Nikon and therefore always works with all past and current Nikon cameras.

Capture NX-D is another free (and frequently updated) download from the Nikon website.
NX-D is Nikon's RAW editor and allows for more in-depth and batch editing of Nikon RAW (NEF) files.
One nice feature (that was carried over from CaptureNX2) is that it lets you manipulate many of the pre-sets of the camera on your PC after the picture was taken.
In addition it let's you automatically apply lens profiles (i.e. distortion control, chromatic aberrations) of most Nikon lenses.