‘Lighting and Cameras Aren’t Made for People of Color’ — for ESPN’s Serena Williams Series, That Had to Change

Serena Williams has been under a lot of different spotlights throughout her life. The 23-time Grand Slam winner — most recently seen holding the Olympic torch on a boat speeding down the Seine — has had her story told in all sorts of different ways, from producing polished Oscar contender “ King Richard ” to doing cameos in “ Glass Onion ” to any number of slightly smarmy hits about her by pundits on ESPN . Even with an athlete in the “Greatest of All Time” conversation, maybe especially with such an athlete, there are lots of different ways you can approach their story. Intention matters.

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Religion of Sports and ESPN Film ’s new documentary series “In the Arena: Serena Williams” — the follow-up season off of RoS’s success with football docuseries “Man in the Arena: Tom Brady” — is unapologetically triumphant and celebratory, and not just in how it moves through the highs and lows of her storied career. The docuseries tapped cinematographer Ayana Baraka, one of only six Black female DPs in IATSE Local 600, to film the interviews with the Williams family, friends, and tennis rivals alike. Baraka organized her camera setups to echo Williams’ journey towards a feeling of greatness and make Williams look as strong as she is in real life.

We can look very different in different lighting, after all. When you go outside, sunlight bounces off the leaves on trees, off the sky, off our clothes, off everything. Artificial light sources will only blast a ray with consistent color temperatures at a subject, and it’s up to the DP and their gaffer to try and sculpt that light — a task made even more difficult for subjects of color since film, cameras, and lighting technologies were all designed with specifically white skin tones in mind. Baraka’s pet peeve is imagery that fails to preserve the integrity of skin hue, including undertones, while creating an image with softness.

“There’s a tendency to over-light [people of color,]” Baraka told IndieWire. “Serena has those pinkish undertones we definitely needed to bring out. Lighting and cameras aren’t made for people of color. They were created for other folks and that’s fine, but we need to do more work to make sure that the image that we’re creating is a true, authentic, beautiful image.”

How Baraka went about crafting that image of Serena was, largely, putting rags or sheets of fabric in front of her lights to make them behave a little bit more realistically. “I reached out to John Tindall, who makes BROKEH rags,” Baraka said. “Basically what it does is it breaks up the spectrum of light so that it’s more authentic to what actually happens in reality. In reality, the light is bouncing off of everything, and the rags that he created help to emulate that.”

Being able to really see Williams and treat her skin hue less harshly goes a long way, but Baraka needed to do a ton of prep work in order to pull off exactly the right balance. “With celebrities of this caliber, you don’t have a lot of time to light. I would literally get her in the chair for like three minutes, make the adjustments and then the interview would start. So studying the face and having an understanding of what’s going on [was key],” Baraka said.

Baraka not only pulled stills and clips to emulate that she thought were representative of Williams but developed a custom LUT to support the desired look of “In The Arena: Serena Williams,” doing extensive camera testing to find the right lens and filter combinations, and the right length for the different camera setups, so the editors always had different views to choose. The front view of Williams Baraka designed the straight-to-camera view of Williams so that it would truly feel like the viewer was sitting across from her. Baraka also introduced a side view, too.

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“The second image just allows you to get even closer,” Baraka said. “I know the editors are gonna love having the second image just to help get in closer for those more intimate moments. I think that people who watch it will feel it.”

Intimacy was important to Baraka, but so was the ability, with lighting and backdrop adjustments, to project a sense of growing strength and greatness. “Initially, our concept was like a taut fabric, or something similar to a net from tennis, in the background, but over time, that changed. We really wanted something that puts Serena on a throne and really feels regal,” Baraka said.

The team went with a slightly draped, textured fabric look—colored differently for different people and for different points in Williams’ life. Baraka was able to adjust the tension and cohesion of the background for dramatic effect. She also adjusted the backlights to subtly illustrate Williams’ path through tennis and life.

“For me, it’s like she’s becoming. First she’s on her way to becoming [Serena Williams], and then she is, so [the lighting] changes,” Baraka said. “I definitely wanted to highlight her strength and make it feel intimate.”

Episode 4 of “In The Arena: Serena Williams” airs on ESPN on August 6.