Aim of the Intervention
My aim for this intervention is to create a resource bank that provides staff and students with access to a broad and diverse range of materials on how to light people of all genders and skin tones. The aims of this intervention will be as follows:
- To design a co-created, living resource bank of lighting techniques, case studies, and visual references that centre diverse skin tones and intersect with wider identity markers such as gender, age and disability
- Have this bank of resources be available to both staff and students, keep access open to all so any additional resources can be updated/changed
- Integrate this knowledge into my own workshops to ensure that my work is aligning with UAL’s EDI policy and accurately reflects the diversity of our student body
Motivation and positionality
At UAL my job is to teach camera and lighting instruction to students across five Film and TV courses at the LCC campus. My motivation for this has come from my experience at UAL as well as an interest in my own freelance work as a DOP/Camera operator. I often have students ask what is “the correct way” to light skin tones which aren’t white. These questions have revealed an ongoing gap in the resources and technical knowledge commonly used in the screen school. In my own experience as a student this was also the case, I’ve never had any direct guidance on this subject when I was studying film production. I hope through this research and co-creation project I can better provide guidance and answers to these questions. While I am not a person of colour, I approach this intervention from a position of both accountability and responsibility. I am committed to fostering equity and inclusivity through reflecting on my practice. This project is motivated by a desire to critically examine my own teaching and to actively redesign my workshops with care, accuracy, and social responsibility. As Choudrey (2016) highlights, meaningful inclusivity means amplifying underrepresented voices, not speaking for them, this is an idea that continues to shape how I approach this work.
This being a metropolitan university in the capital of the UK, there are a diverse range of students across all of my courses (Fig.1) University of the Arts London (UAL), 2024 . Something I come across often when teaching cameras and lighting to students are technical questions of how to light different skin tones. Historically camera manufacturers have based most of their research and resources on how to light white skin (Wevers, R. 2016). Therefore the default resources which I have used to teach these techniques come from this practice. This to me seems like a pedagogical gap: how to support students in understanding the technical and cultural nuances of lighting different skin tones. Most lighting tutorials, reference materials, and manufacturer defaults are rooted in the assumption of whiteness as the standard (Greenhalgh, C., 2020). This intervention is designed to directly challenge these norms through a reconfiguration of how lighting is taught in my sessions at UAL. By creating this resource bank I will be more equipped to accurately answer these questions and create space for co-authorship, intersectionality, and evolve my teaching practice.
(Fig.1)
History of white centric beliefs in camera technologies
Historically, video and film camera technologies were developed with a racialised bias that privileged white skin tones. Dr. Lorna Roth’s influential concept of “skin-colour reference cards” specifically the “Shirley cards” used to calibrate color balance highlights how the industry norm was based on white women’s skin, effectively encoding whiteness as the visual and technical standard (Roth, 2009). This technological bias meant that cameras struggled to accurately render darker skin tones, often producing poor contrast, incorrect lighting, or loss of detail. Roth’s work reveals how this embedded racial preference reflected and reinforced broader societal hierarchies, particularly in visual media. In addition the anthology Early Discourses on Colour and Cinema discusses how color film stocks were optimized to reproduce skin tones that were not only white, but “far paler than in reality,” embodying what was described as a “white shade of white” (Fossati et al., 2018, p. 258). Together, these studies underscore how whiteness was not just overrepresented in film but technologically encoded as the visual ideal, shaping decades of cinematic production and perception.
(Fig.2)
Research method
Research plays a central role in this process, both in terms of understanding the historical exclusions embedded in visual technologies and in producing new knowledge that informs my teaching. Central to the intervention is the creation of a practical lighting reference bank. Within these resources I will ensure a diverse range of references are used, both in terms of technical materials and visual representation, so that the imagery reflects the racial and cultural diversity of the student body. Accurate and respectful representation is essential in disrupting the visual norms that have historically privileged whiteness. Something I have learned through this module is that structural biases within academic practices can reinforce feelings of exclusion among BAME students. As Rana et al. (2022) notes, BAME students often experience teaching methods and imagery that fails to reflect their identities, which can contribute to disengagement and attainment gaps. By addressing these disparities in my visual resources, this intervention aims to create a more equitable, collaborative and engaged learning environment.
In the future I would like to do some primary research and testing on lighting different skin tones by lighting a range of models with diverse skin under varied lighting conditions. A strong example of the kind of work and method I plan to create can be found in the work of Yu-lung Sung, who critically examines the ways in which Eurocentric lighting theory has been traditionally taught in higher education (Sung, Y.-L. 2022). In his study, Sung subverts these norms by tasking students with the challenge of lighting non-white skin tones during practical workshops (Fig. 3). He supports this by incorporating reference materials that centre BAME practioners, therefore broadening the visual and technical language used in their departments lighting instruction. The resulting outputs will be developed into instructional assets and critical discussion tools to be integrated into classroom practice and added to the wider resource bank.
(Fig.3)
While UAL’s Inclusive Practice guidance provides a valuable framework for addressing inequities in teaching and learning (UAL, 2023), it risks becoming performative if not critically engaged with or actively implemented in subject-specific contexts such as film and photography . This intervention seeks to move beyond surface-level inclusion by embedding anti-racist approaches into the core of technical instruction. By addressing these disparities in visual education, this intervention aims to foster a more equitable, collaborative, and critically engaged learning environment (Advance HE 2018). In doing so, it contributes to the broader goal of decolonising the curriculum—challenging dominant narratives, centring marginalised voices, and reshaping the visual culture that underpins creative education.
Longevity and relevance
A key ambition of this intervention is to ensure that its effects are sustainable. To achieve this, the resource bank will be developed as an open, co-created, and evolving archive. Rather than a fixed document authored solely by staff, the resource will invite student and staff contributions over time to be filled with technical diagrams, lighting tests, behind-the-scenes imagery, and personal reflections. This participatory approach is rooted in intersectional pedagogy, recognising that students bring with them diverse, layered identities shaped by race, gender, class, and other intersecting factors. These factors must be meaningfully reflected in the educational frameworks we construct. Inclusive pedagogies must actively disrupt universalist assumptions about learners and instead centre the complexities of lived experience within teaching and learning environments (Ahmed and Jackson 2021). This also aligns with findings from Shen and Sanders (2023), who argue that inclusive practices in higher education must move beyond principles and into institutionalised, ongoing collaboration with students. This will empower students by giving them authorship, recognition and contribute to their own sense of expertise and belonging in technical spaces.
To access these resources they will be embedded within shared digital platforms (such as Moodle or Onedrive) and maintained as part of the ongoing teaching toolkit within the LCC technical instruction team. In future, it could serve as a model for other departments or courses across UAL, potentially feeding into broader strategies around inclusive curriculum design and staff development. In time it could help to support new lecturers, AL’s, or visiting freelancers who may not feel confident addressing race and representation in lighting contexts.
Some feedback I received from my colleagues was to think about how this set of resources would be vetted for their use. Reflecting on this I have chosen to keep the process as open as possible, as to avoid the idea that I am trying to gate keep this knowledge. I want this bank of resources to be designed to be explored and any participants to be treated as a student-staff partnership (Mattijssen, L. and Shuker, L., 2025). When the initial imagery has been shot the resources will be tested in my workshops, and students will be invited to provide feedback on clarity, inclusivity, and technical relevance. Additionally, the resource could be submitted for peer review within the technical staff group or assessed against UAL’s diversity KPIs and dashboard data, particularly concerning awarding gaps and student satisfaction scores. In terms of keeping this project going and up to date, I see this being a yearly reviewed set of resources. Ideally at the end of term or before the new year begins, this can be reviewed by staff who use the resource bank, give feedback and update as necessary.
Reflecting on this process so far, I’ve become increasingly aware of the importance of holding space for discomfort and learning as an educator. Designing this intervention has not only challenged me to rethink the materials I teach with but also to examine the values and assumptions that underpin them. It involves staying open to feedback, listening actively to lived experiences, and continuously improving how I support students who don’t see themselves reflected in dominant media narratives.
Ref’s
Advance HE, 2018. Decolonising the Curriculum: A Sector Guide to Embedding Intersectional Practices in Subject‑Specific Teaching. York: Advance HE. Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/programmes-events/calendar/inclusive-curriculum-series-1-0
Ahmed, F. and Jackson, D., 2021. Decolonising inclusive pedagogy: from policy to practice. Teaching in Higher Education, 26(7-8), pp.1064–1079. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1931081
Choudrey, S., 2016. Inclusivity: Supporting BAME Trans People. Gender Identity Research & Education Society (GIRES). Available at: https://www.gires.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BAME_Inclusivity.pdf [Accessed 1 July 2025].
Fossati, G., Jackson, V., Lameris, B., Street, S., Yumibe, J. and Rongen‑Kaynakci, E. (eds.), 2018. Early Discourses on Colour and Cinema: Origins, Functions, Meanings. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Greenhalgh, C., 2020. Skin Tone and Faces: Cinematography Pedagogy which Foregrounds Inclusivity and Diversity in Teaching Lighting. Cinematography in Progress 2019 Conference Proceedings. Published online 7 February 2020. [online] Available at: https://www.cinematographyinprogress.com/index.php/cito/article/view/45 [Accessed 16 July 2025].
Mattijssen, L. and Shuker, L., 2025. Co-creation in higher education: a conceptual systematic review. Higher Education, [online] Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01364-1
Rana, K.S., Bashir, A., Begum, F. & Bartlett, H. (2022) ‘Bridging the BAME attainment gap: Student and staff perspectives on tackling academic bias’, Frontiers in Education, 7, p. 868349. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.868349
Roth, L. (2009) Looking at Shirley, the Ultimate Norm: Colour Balance, Image Technologies, and Cognitive Equity. Canadian Journal of Communication, 34(1), pp. 111–136.
Shen, H. and Sanders, K., 2023. Inclusive education and student engagement: a multidimensional perspective. Journal of Educational Research, 116(4), pp.389–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2022.2156783
Sung, Y.-L. (2022) ‘Decolonising cinematography education: experimenting with lighting ratios and textures for Black and Asian skin tones’. Film Education Journal, 5 (2): 114–35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/FEJ.05.2.05.
University of the Arts London (UAL), 2023. Inclusive Teaching and Learning Toolkit. London: University of the Arts London. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/resources/academic-enhancement-resources
Wevers, R. (2016) ‘Kodak Shirley is the Norm: On Racism and Photography’, Junctions, Graduate Journal of the Humanities, 1(1), pp. 63–72. doi: 10.33391/jgjh.19
Fig 1 – University of the Arts London (UAL), 2024. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Data Report 2024. London: University of the Arts London. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/472836/UAL-EDI-data-report-2024-PDFA.p
Fig 2 – Roth, L., 2009. Looking at Shirley, the Ultimate Norm: Colour Balance, Image Technologies, and Cognitive Equity. Canadian Journal of Communication pp.114 Available at: https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2009v34n1a2196
Fig. 3 – Sung, Y.-L. (2022) ‘Decolonising cinematography education: experimenting with lighting ratios and textures for Black and Asian skin tones’. Film Education Journal, 5 (2): 127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/FEJ.05.2.05.