Always a grip!

Color

There are snapshooters and there are photographers. they are not the same beasts, just as there are folks who are content with a camera phone. Cameras today are remarkable and the more options humans are given, the more creative they become. It's about control. RAW, always.

I am astonished that anyone who is serious about image quality and being a better photographer reads Rockwell. His advice is universally bad. If you want good information, read DXO and Thom Hogan (no typo).
As to the lens, no comparison...14-24mm. Nothing else comes close.

CTphotogGuy, while the 70-105mm range is spoken of as the optimal focal length, I know most pros use much longer, like 200mm. But the lesson for today is ..."Shoot what you got!" It is not unusual for me to do an entire portrait session with a 24-70mm, particularly in a small studio. It works out just fine and the client is generally happy as hell. I shoot a full frame sensor and this image was shot at 42mm on a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8.

I've owned the 18-200 back when I shot cropped sensor cameras. It's too soft to live in my camera bag compared even to the old 80-200mm AF Nikons which I used until I upgraded to full sensor and the 70-200mm. My wife, who is not at all in to photography, has it on her camera and likes it because it's 18-200 and she doesn't (or won't) use any other lens. I learned that after I sold the 18-200, so I had to buy another just for her.

Often in studio the issxue you have is controlling the light and that may mean preventing it from spilling on an area where you do not want it. Softboxes are far better at that that umbrellas. Don;t misunderstand, you need umbrellas in your kit as well, for when you simply need general fill. But one of the issues with umbrellas is that they tend to scatter light everywhere and that is often not desirable.
Back to CLS...it's a great system, it's just that it's not reliable in strong daylight. I've been shooting Nikon since the mid '50s, so I'm obviously high on their gear, but when I do a shoot, I need for the gear to work EVERY time. Pocket Wizards do that and the TT5's will do everything the other PW's can do plus some things they don't.

I, too, went to Fi in Austin. I shot from the stands, 30 rows up and use a 300mm f/2.8 with a 2X converter on a full frame body, which gave me 600mm at f/5.6> Plenty of light on Sunday, so my exposures were at 1/2000 with an iso of 280. My camera handles noise really well, better than anything else out there, so ISO is never an issue. Additionally, it will focus down to f/8 in low light, so that's never a problem. Another thing you can do with Nikon is lie to the camera, and tell it to shoot like it is a cropped sensor. That gives you another 50% in focal length, so with your 70-200, you could have been shooting at f/5.6 at 600mm. Here are a few results...

If you are going Pocket Wizard and you want to use your speedlights, get the TT5s and a TT1 with an AC3 on top of the TT1. They will work on anything, including your speedlights and they will allow you to trigger speedlights in bright sun or around corners where CLS often fails. I use 8 Nikon SB800's with PW's for location shoots and they always work. For your studio, go with softboxes.

Well, I own both the D4 and the D800e. I find myself reaching for one of the D4's more and more because it just does everything well. When I need to look like I was shooting a medium format, I reach for the D800e. In those times, I need to be able to completely control the light or to know that light will not be an issue as the 800 does not have the dynamic range that I find in the D4. Nor does it have the low light capability or the frame rate. Pixels are over rated. I shot my first billboard with 6MP and it still looks great! The 7100, while an excellent camera, doesn't have the low light capability to keep up with either one of them. To be successful in low light, you need large pixels and that means full frame. If I didn't have either one, or couldn't afford both, I'd go for a D600-610. The only circumstance under which I would consider a cropped sensor camera would be if I were a wildlife shooter or some other venue where pixel density was the primary concern. I've been a Nikon shooter for 56 years and that pre-dates the F model.

A. Fill the frame!
B. Get off the pattern focusing you are using as it's picking out the nice back wall with pattern instead of your subjects. Go to single point focusing.
C. Your D7000 will handle iso3200 easily and you can push to 6400 if necessary. Don't be shy about iso.
D. Looks like the gym has fluorescent lighting, which cycles causing bands and color variations. Not much you can do about that.
E. Forget all the cute color balance gizmos. Your camera will create a custom white balance off a clean white hanky. Read your manual for instructions and you'll create a custom white balance for every situation as you need them.
F. Forget anything other than the "M" setting on your camera. Shoot manual mode and raw. Jpegs deteriorate quality in the camera. Shoot raw.

Nikon's sharpest TC is the 2.0 E III (not the E II). Here is an example of an image using only 4% of image and shot with a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 and a 2.0 E III TC. Car is doing about 130mph and this was shot from the stands some 30 rows up handheld. It is also dumbed down to 95 ppi for web.

dNikon's sharpest TC is the 2.0 E III (not the E II). Here is an example of an image using only 4% of image and shot with a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 and a 2.0 E III TC. Car is doing about 130mph and this was shot from the stands some 30 rows up handheld. It is also dumbed down to 95 ppi for web.

Nikon's sharpest TC is the 2.0 E III (not the E II). Here is an example of an image using only 4% of image and shot with a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 and a 2.0 E III TC. Car is doing about 130mph and this was shot from the stands some 30 rows up handheld. It is also dumbed sown to 95 ppi for web.

Excellent choice in dogs, too.