Nikon 35mm f1.8g vs 50mm f1.8g?

Which would be more useful for a person who wants to get into portraits. I don't want to copy his style, but I want my portraits to be kind of like Scott Schmann's portraits. Mostly like the portraits with the whole body in it. Those are the ideal portraits I would like to take.

But I don't want to limit myself. I would also like to take portraits closer up. Anything but headshots really.

What do you guys think?

50 is a great portrait lens

The 35 mm lens is to wide for portraits.

The AF-S 50 mm f/1.8 is a good portrait lens as is the AF-S 60 mm f/2.8 macro. The macro lens can serve a dual purpose and of course you can certainly get up close and personal with your portraits

A 35mm lens is not a good portraiture lens due to perspective distortion.

http://www.althephoto.com/lenses/35mmprime.php

Before you decide you need to determine whether your camera is a full frame or an APS-C sensor. If it is an APS-C then there's like a 1.6x crop sensor so a 35mm will become a 50mm and a 50mm will become an 80mm (unless you you are using a full frame camera which what it is is what it is. So I would say that if you are on a Crop Sensor they both will work but some people find the 50mm too "zoomed in" I would get the 35mm because it is a decent portrait lens and it would be really 50mm which is a good walk around prime focal length. 50mm (80mm) may be more ideal for strictly portraits. If you have a Full Frame then definitely get the 50mm.

The 35 is really wide to do portraits with. I recommend the 50mm. 35mm is a bit more suited for indoor photography candids, etc.

If you already own a camera with an 18-55 then use that. Set it to 35mm, see what hapepns, set it to 50mm, see what happens. The primes will be f1.8 which you obviously won't get that way but 35mm on both lenses is close enough to help you decide.