Filming landscapes with the ZR

Film beats photo

With such a richly layered tapestry of movement, sound and shifting light, it’s little wonder Sergio chose to film his visit rather than simply photograph it, creating a story that showcases how being present in nature can enrich the experience of filming it. “In photography, you search for the perfect image, but in filmmaking the challenge is capturing change,” he says. “Here, the landscape becomes a living character: clouds moving, grass swaying, light shifting across the scene. Video allows you to convey that atmosphere and the passing of time, with ambient sound becoming a fundamental part of that narrative. In fact, my favourite moment was the very last scene, when the sound of the rain falling blends with the forest ambience. It just made the whole place even more magical.”

Where the Nikon ZR makes all the difference

To bring the landscape to life, Sergio opted for the Nikon ZR, a decision that he says prompted him to shift his usual reactive style to a far more deliberate way of working. “Compared to my regular camera, the Nikon Zf, the workflow with the ZR feels much more intentional and technical,” he explains. “It’s not a grab-and-go type of camera. You’re working with a true cinema tool that requires more planning, careful exposure and proper LUT or monitoring set-up. But all of that just pushes me to think more deeply about the story behind each clip and makes me more aware of light, colour and movement.

“The first thing that struck me about the ZR was its solid build and compact design,” he continues. “Despite being a cinema-oriented camera, it’s surprisingly light and easy to handle. The dynamic range is very wide, allowing me to recover details in both shadows and highlights with a natural look that I rarely achieve with hybrid cameras. And the colour reproduction has that distinctive cinematic signature that brings an organic texture.”

For most of the film, Sergio teamed the ZR with the NIKKOR Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S for wide, open scenes and the NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S for mid-range moments, while he used the NIKKOR Z 28mm f/2.8 for more intimate moments. “Travel light and know your gear,” he says, advice reflected in the streamlined backpack he carried, packed with four batteries, CFexpress Type B and microSD cards, a Fotopro tripod, and simple cleaning tools to keep the lenses clear in the damp forest conditions.

From storyboard to screen

Arriving on location with the story worked out ahead of time and alternative plans in place for the unpredictable weather, Sergio didn’t fight the conditions – he used them to shape the tone of each clip. “Embrace the weather as part of your visual narrative,” he urges. “When I started filming, the scene was bright, but later it became darker and moodier. Instead of trying to keep everything uniform, I took advantage of the shift to show different atmospheres in the same location. If fog, light rain or heavy clouds appear, I look for more intimate details and textures that only reveal themselves in that kind of light. When the weather becomes unpredictable, I adjust my exposure to protect the highlights and let the shadows fall naturally. This usually creates a more dramatic and authentic look and, in the end, these weather changes add depth to the video and turn the landscape into a living character evolving throughout the day.”

Alongside using the elements to carry the narrative, Sergio focused on defining details in each clip to underline his message of mindfulness. “Keep your scenes simple: every movement should have purpose and every scene should have its own special element, for example, birdsong while the sun enters the frame and casts its rays,” he says, explaining how this also shapes his approach to composition. “I look for natural transitions within the environment, such as how a mountain emerges through the fog or how the reflection on the water changes during golden hour. I work with visual layers that guide the viewer’s eye, along with a sense of rhythm: slow clips, smooth pans and minimal camera movement that let the footage breathe. For instance, I filmed a flowing river to show the strength of the water and how it can transmit a sense of peace. By using ferns in the foreground I could highlight how plant life near rivers represents healing.”

The ZR settings that shaped the film

Relying on the Nikon ZR’s RAW capabilities to capture the shifting conditions in Riópar, Sergio kept his set-up intentionally flexible. “Film in RAW for more flexibility in post,” he says, a principle reflected in his decision to film almost everything in 4K R3D NE (RAW), switching to 6K only for the final sequence from 1:02 onwards. “The slow-motion scenes at the end were recorded at 120fps, focusing on the falling rain droplets,” he explains, having paired the higher frame rate with the added resolution for extra clarity in those final moments. The rest of the film was captured at 23.976fps for smooth, cinematic movement, with 50fps used sparingly “to add a bit of intrigue and more dynamic motion.”

To keep the look consistent as the weather shifted, Sergio relied on a fixed manual White Balance at 5600K. “I didn’t change the White Balance at any point during the video,” he explains. He only adjusted his exposure as needed, with his ISO ranging between 800 and 6400, supported by a variable ND filter and a PolarPro ND64 to control light without closing the aperture. With everything recorded in R3D NE RAW, he had the flexibility he needed to shape the colour and atmosphere in post.

The call of the wild

In a film built upon the message of mindfulness, Sergio says sound is as equally important as the visuals, summing it up perfectly by stating, “Audio carries half the emotion, so always record more than you think you need.” All of the sound in this project came directly from the Nikon ZR, which the filmmaker used to capture natural elements such as wind, water and wildlife without worrying about gain levels. “The 32-bit float audio feature is a huge advantage; it’s extremely difficult to clip or distort,” he says, adding that because of this he didn’t need to adjust anything in post. “The audio the ZR captures doesn’t require any changes. It’s clean, pure audio, so I could just drop it straight into the edit, and that’s the exact sound you hear in the final video.”

Reflecting on his film, Sergio concludes: “Ultimately the ZR is a professional, demanding camera, but it rewards you with exceptional image quality and sound. If your priority is cinematic quality and full control over your story, it’s the perfect tool because it pushes you to think like a filmmaker, not just a camera operator.”