Advice for indoor portrait equipment

[corinnacs]

Hi, all,
I'm still amateur, with very limited equipment. Most of my portrait work is outdoor, or limited to a couple of subjects indoor with good window light and a single flash with umbrella for fill.
Tomorrow I have a shoot with a family of 9 (mostly adults) who want to be indoor at their home. With my Nikon d90, I have a 50mm 1.8, but the only thing shorter than that has an aperture of 3.5. I'm trying to figure out if I should rent a better lens (perhaps vr -- don't have one of those), or better lighting...or just go with what I have (not much). The posed ones, of course I'll do with tripod, but it's always nice to be off and have a bit more freedom, especially with two toddlers in the mix.
Any suggestions?

[ldelacruz]

I would use a tripod, lights and f8 or smaller for more DOF. You really need light, light, light.

[neyekon]

I don't have much experience with portrait photos but as I understand it... prefered focal length for portrait is around 60mm-90mm and for a large group you may want some DOF around f8 or so to ensure that everyone is in focus, especially if they are posed in layers(one behind the other). To do this indoors you need light...lots of light. You may set your ISO to 400 to help some but I would not go any faster. To help keep your images sharp always use a tripod when possible, especially in low light situations.