1
Your camera is guessing
What the light meter actually does, the three situations where it reliably gets it wrong, and how exposure really works. You leave in Aperture Priority.
Photography course · Beirut · Arabic & English
Off Auto
A three-week photography course for people who own a camera and never left automatic mode.
You will never shoot on auto again — and you will know why. Six live sessions, twenty seats. Next group dates: TBA.
The honest version
You spent real money on that camera. It is still guessing for you.
Automatic mode is a machine making decisions on your behalf, and it does not know what your photograph is about. It does not know the light behind your subject is the point. It does not know you wanted the background soft, the water frozen mid-air, or the room to stay dark because dark was the mood.
So it averages everything out and hands you something technically acceptable and completely anonymous. Then you look at the result and assume the camera was not good enough.
The camera is fine. Nobody ever showed you which decisions were yours to make.
It took me ten years to work that out on my own, without a school and without a shortcut. This course is the short version — the parts that mattered, in the order I wish I had learned them.
01
Six sessions. One idea each.
Every session takes one decision away from the camera and gives it to you. You shoot between every class, and every class opens with your photographs on screen.
2
Aperture
Deciding what the viewer looks at. Depth of field, why the small number is the big opening, and how to stop letting the camera choose your subject.
3
Shutter
Freezing a moment the eye could never hold — and using blur on purpose. Panning, motion, and why half your photographs are secretly soft.
4
Light is the subject
The most valuable hour of the course. Hard and soft, front, side and back, reading a room, and why one window beats most studio kit.
5
Framing with intention
Past the rule of thirds. Background discipline, negative space, and the difference between taking one frame and working a scene.
6
Critique
Your best work on screen, discussed honestly. How to select and cull your own photographs, and the personal project that keeps you improving after this ends.
02
Why learn it from me
I am a working commercial photographer in Beirut. I shoot food, drink and tabletop work for brands — photography where the light has to be right the first time and a client is waiting on the other side of it.
But I never went to photography school. I started as a hobbyist shooting landscapes, moved into product, then food, and ended up in tabletop, which is what I am still exploring now. Every bit of it came from experimenting: shoot, fail, work out why, shoot again. Ten years of that.
I don't follow the textbook they teach in school. I have my own way of understanding the technical side of a picture.
That is deliberate, and it is the reason this course works for people who have already tried and failed to learn from tutorials. I am not reciting a syllabus I was handed. I am giving you the mental model I had to build myself, in the order that would have saved me the most time.
I am not teaching you to copy my photographs. I am teaching you to decide, deliberately, what yours are about — and then to make the camera do it.
What that means in practice
- Explanations built from results, not from definitions
- No jargon before you need it, and none for its own sake
- A full critique of your work, with a published student rotation
- Six hours instead of ten years of guessing
- Taught by someone who does this for a living, this week
Currently shooting at MMNT Productions in Beirut.
03
Who this is actually for
Come if
- You own a DSLR or mirrorless camera and shoot on auto
- You have watched hours of tutorials and still cannot do it
- Your photographs look fine and never look like yours
- You want someone to look at your work and tell you the truth
- You can make time for six sessions and the assignments
Skip it if
- You only shoot on a phone — most of this needs a camera
- You already shoot confidently in manual
- You want editing and retouching, not shooting
- You want a certificate rather than the skill
- You cannot shoot between sessions — the homework is the course
04
Dates and price
$50
The whole group course. Six live sessions, six assignments, and a full critique of your work through a student rotation.
- Length
- 6 sessions · 60 minutes
- Next group
- TBA
- Session times
- TBA · Beirut time
- Where
- Live on Google Meet
- Language
- Arabic & English
- Seats
- 20 per class
- You need
- A DSLR or mirrorless camera
- Payment
- Whish, OMT or transfer
Next group datesTBA
Twenty seats, so everyone's work gets looked at.
Join the interest list
No payment to join the list. Dates are confirmed before booking.
Prefer a private course?
One-to-one, or with your friends.
The complete six-session OFF AUTO course is also available privately for $350 total, for one person or a close group of friends. Direct WhatsApp access for photography questions and advice is included.
Explore private tutoring
05
Before you ask
How do I pay?
Whish, OMT or bank transfer. Joining the interest list is free. Once dates are announced, we confirm your place and payment details in the chat.
What camera do I need?
Any DSLR or mirrorless camera with a mode dial — the one with A, S and M on it. It does not need to be new or expensive. The camera you already own and do not understand is the perfect camera for this course.
If you only have a phone, this is not the right course for you yet. Tell me anyway and I will let you know when there is one that fits.
Do I need any experience?
None. This is the beginner course and it assumes you are shooting on automatic. If you already work confidently in manual, skip it — FOOD 101 is where you want to be.
Is it in Arabic or English?
Both, the way everyone in Beirut actually speaks. The technical terms stay in English because that is what is printed on your camera and in its menus — but everything gets explained in Arabic.
Where does it take place?
Live on Google Meet, so you can join from anywhere in Lebanon. Each group session runs for an hour.
Dates and session times: TBA. Join the interest list to hear when the next group is scheduled.
What if I miss a session?
Tell me in advance and I will catch you up. But this is a live course built on your homework being critiqued — miss more than one and you will lose the thread. If you cannot commit to all six sessions, wait for the next round rather than waste your money.
Is there homework?
Yes, and it is the actual course. A short shooting assignment after every session, posted to our group. You are not paying for information — you are paying for someone to look at your photographs and tell you what is wrong with them. That only works if you shoot.
06
Where this leads
Three courses, in order. Each one assumes the last.
You are here
Next · join the listOff Auto
Introduction to photography. Get off automatic and start deciding.
$50 · 6 sessions
Food 101
Commercial food photography. Finish with six portfolio images and the knowledge to price the job.
$200 · 8 sessions
Later · join the listFood 102
Strobes and commercial retouching. Build the light instead of finding it.
$300 · 8 sessions
Start with a conversation.
Tell me what camera you have and what you would like to learn. I will let you know when the next group dates are announced.