I've been shooting for about 3 or 4 years, but almost exclusively landscapes. Recently, I've been getting more serious about events, portraits, and artificial light photography. A friend asked me to shoot his wedding, which started out with an afternoon on the beach on their first date's anniversary. The wedding is saturday, and then there will be a family day next week.

I have only owned flash units for about a week, shooting in existing light for my entire time as a photgrapher.

I took 221 shots and showed them 48. they picked these 15. I am really happy with some of them, and not so proud of a few, but they really like all of them.

How did I do, what can I fix?

D70, SB-800, 2x SB600, 50mmf1.8, 12-24mmf4

I really like the first two shots of her! He seems a tad bit stiff in those pics though.

He's kind of a stiff guy in general. When they kissed, they told me "get ready, you're only going to see this once!"

I haven't been shooting long but one thing I notice is

get them right out of the background - you could have shot from much lower on a few of those in there - you can see the difference when they only have the sky behind them - the intentional shots with them in the background (the ones with no sky are of course the exception).
Use your flashes to bring them out some more too - expose for the background and then balance the subject out with the flash (something I am yet to master).

Is she a dancer? You could have really rocked her out with that outfit I think.

A little hint that i think would help these guys look a bit less stiff. Remind them that they have joints, and that they should use them. A little bend in the knee is a good thing.

your sixth shot is your strongest shot. The basic compositional rule of thirds really came into handy in this shot.

8 is a nice moment, but could use some help compositionally, and could be processed better. I took it into photoshop and first used levels to make it properly exposed. Then I used curves and created an s-curve to add contrast. Lastly i added a custom vignette to darken up the ground and create a sky gradient. This will draw the eye into the center where the couple is.

I did the same thing to the 6th shot as well.

I am not a fan of grey in your shots. Try to attain a full range of pure white to pure black in your black and white shots. It will make them look 100% better.

I re-editied those two images. I think they're better than they were.

For your first shoot, I think you're definitely heading in the right direction. Just listen to what these other guys have said and you'll be even better off. =P

As you become more comfortable photographing people, they generally become more comfortable being photographed. A few jokes or funny suggestions can go a long way to lighten the mood and help people relax. Even if that doesn't work, it helps if you move around the couple more. If they won't listen to you and simply stand there, work around that and capture the different angles that are there. (ie, shooting from a low angle to make them stand out against the sky, or using a longer lens to pick off the subtle expressions as they talk to each other.)

Hope some of that helps!

I know the photographer can really help bring expression out of the subjects. I worked with a photographer once who just talked and told stories and asked me questions, while all the time firing away. she got some very good shots of me while i was being completely natural. I think on this shoot, they were nervous (ther were getting married after all), and and i was a bit nervous too. As i keep doing these kind of shoots, The photography will become more second nature, and I can concentrate more and more on the interactions with my subjects, and the artistic aspects of the shoot, rather than the technical ones.

keep those comments coming.