Portrait Help

[Ballistics]

I was going to see if I could get away with 2.8, but do you think that might be too wide?

a 50 mm on a D700 is a very nice portrait length.
Assuming that what you mean by 'wide' is too much of a DOF, shooting at 2.8 or 3.2 will give you less than a meter of dof at the same distance from camera to subject.
You can download a DOF calculator at dofmaster.com to refer to while you actually work.
That narrower point of view may make you change your position a bit but the increased focal length and its shallower DOF will through the background nicely OOF.

.Lew

By too wide I meant the opening, and yes I meant DOF. I have DOF calculator and honestly never thought to refer to it. I'll be sure to use it next time around. I appreciate your help.