I’ve been shooting in natural light almost exclusively for the past two years. Not because I think it’s superior, but because every time I tried to build a repeatable artificial lighting setup, something fell apart. Wrong ratio, muddy shadows, that flat look that screams “I winged it.” Last month I had a portrait session where the results were fine but not consistent across the shoot, and fine doesn’t get people to book you again. That frustration is what sent me down a research rabbit hole, and that’s how I landed on this short but dense clip from Joel Grimes.

In this Joel Grimes tutorial, he references a free class he teaches built around what he calls his ten-step lighting process. The video is short, almost teaser-length, but if you know Grimes’ work, you know he’s not a fluff guy. He’s built a career on high-contrast, commercial-grade portraits that look expensive without being precious about gear or process. The ten-step framework is his attempt to systematize something most photographers treat as instinct.

Why “Ten Steps” Is Actually an Anti-Overwhelm Tool

Here’s what clicked for me immediately. The point of breaking lighting into ten defined steps isn’t to make it more complicated. It’s the opposite. When you’re mid-shoot and something looks wrong, having a numbered sequence means you can diagnose the problem instead of just tweaking randomly and hoping. Grimes’ whole philosophy seems to be about removing the guesswork so you can focus on the subject and the moment.

Most of us, myself included, have absorbed lighting knowledge in fragments. A YouTube video here, a workshop there, trial and error in between. The result is a mental model full of gaps. A sequential framework fills those gaps with a repeatable decision tree. First you handle this, then you handle that. You’re not improvising from zero every time.

The Core of His Lighting Philosophy: Contrast and Control

Grimes is famous for a specific look: deep shadows, strong separation between subject and background, a commercial edge that holds up in print. That look doesn’t happen by accident and it doesn’t require a $10,000 strobe kit. What it requires is understanding the relationship between your key light, your fill, and your background exposure, and making deliberate choices about each one.

His ten-step process works through these relationships in sequence. You start with your ambient light reading, then bring in your key light and set the power relative to ambient, then address fill (or intentionally withhold it to control shadow depth), then handle background separately from subject exposure. Each step is a contained decision. You make it, lock it in, and move to the next one. Nothing gets muddled together because you’re not trying to solve everything simultaneously.

The ratio work is where most beginners stall. A 3:1 ratio between key and fill gives you dimension without going dramatic. A 5:1 or higher starts to carve the face the way Grimes prefers for his commercial work. Neither is wrong. But you have to know what ratio you’re working with, otherwise you’re just hoping the light looks good on the back of your camera screen and then discovering it doesn’t hold up in editing.

What You Actually Need to Run This Process

One thing I appreciate about how Grimes presents this: he doesn’t make it gear-dependent. The ten-step logic works with speedlights, with monolights, with a single light source if that’s what you have. I’ve shot with a $65 speedlight and a $15 shoot-through umbrella and gotten results I’m genuinely proud of, so I’m not going to pretend you need studio strobes to take this seriously.

What you do need is a light meter, or a willingness to chimp and adjust methodically until you understand the numbers. Grimes is precise about exposure values and ratios. Eyeballing works until it doesn’t. If you’re shooting tethered or reviewing on a calibrated monitor, you can get away without a handheld meter. But the discipline of thinking in stops and ratios is non-negotiable if you want consistency.

A basic two-light setup handles most of what this framework covers. Key light with a modifier, a background light or reflector for separation, and you’re working. Add a third light for rim or hair and you’ve got everything Grimes uses in most of his commercial work.

Where I’d Push Back (Or At Least Adjust)

The ten-step approach is built for controlled environments. It shines in a studio or a location you can actually control. Where I’ve found it needs adaptation is in run-and-gun situations, which is most of what I do. When I’m shooting at an event or outdoors with ambient changing every twenty minutes, a rigid sequential process can slow you down.

My workaround is to run the full ten-step setup at the beginning of a shoot to establish my baseline, then give myself permission to make single-variable adjustments from there. If the ambient shifts, I change one thing. If I move the subject, I adjust one thing. Keeping changes isolated is the core habit, and that part transfers perfectly from Grimes’ method even when the full sequence isn’t practical.

The Real Takeaway

Lighting consistency comes from decision-making structure, not from better gear or more expensive modifiers. Grimes’ ten-step framework is valuable precisely because it forces you to make each lighting decision on purpose.

Watch the full video and, better yet, grab the free class he mentions. The visual demonstration of how the light actually changes between steps is something written instructions can’t fully replace.