Apaflo wrote:
I had not noticed the list of lenses in your signature. You don't need an 85mm prime. That's a waste of money at this point.
Either the 28-70mm f/2.8 or the 70-200mm f/2.8 will serve your needs, depending on focus distance and the framing you want.
At least two of us have hinted fairly heavily that lights would be a better way to fuss with gear acquisition. With two speedlights (and the SB800 is a good one) you have a start.
Extra lights are cheap if you want to go easy on the pocket book. The results are just as good as with better equipment. The advantage is easy of use, not better images.
You need two main lights, one powerful light that can deal with a softbox. Then you need a fill light, that need not be as powerful. Another pair that also need not be much of anything at all are used for a hair light and one to light the background. The SB800 is good for the main light, and the others can be older used manual lights with optical triggers. Vivitar 283 and 285 models are common, and along with Nikon SB24 are under $50. SB28 and SB26 models are under $100. Brand new models from various Chinese distributors are running everywhere from $40 on up.
So extra flash units is not the problem, it's outfitting them with a light stand and whatever kind of light modifiers are reasonable... the hair light needs a really tall stand and some kind of a snoot and grid. The side lights need medium height stands and barn doors. The main lights might be a softbox on one and a large beauty dish on the other, and they need fairly tall light stands. The background light can use a very short stand and needs something to hold color gels.
The total cost is probably about the same or less than a good 85mm f/1.4, but the effect on your photography would be huge. (You will have a very hard time, shooting studio portraits, seeing a difference between shooting with an 85mm f/1.4 and that 70-200mm f/2.8 set to 85mm.)
I had not noticed the list of lenses in your signa... (
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That was a mindful, Apaflo.