Shooting a Music Video in Extreme Conditions With the Nikon Z 9

High altitudes, snow, biting cold, and a lot of equipment. Some shoots are harder than others and this music video looked particularly grueling. Nevertheless, the Nikon Z 9 is well-equipped for such trials; see how it performs in a testing climate.

There are few videos that I find as information-rich as behind-the-scenes. In this video, a shoot for a Mahogany session is conducted in the Swiss mountains during snowfall and difficult weather. As somebody who enjoys skiing, I am reasonably well versed in how tricky shooting in the snowy mountains can be, and more or less all of the struggles can be seen here.

Snow is one of the most difficult elements to have in a shoot. Not only is it white, but it is reflective and any sunlight will cause it to be awkward to meter, especially if you have subjects in your scene that are significantly darker. In this video, they experience exactly that problem, as well as having a bright sky and a dark location. It really tests the dynamic range of your camera and so it makes for a great situation to test a product.

The Nikon Z 9 is a revered mirrorless body at this point and it was rather brave of Nikon to shoot a behind-the-scenes video of it in some of the most difficult conditions you can shoot. Nevertheless, it holds up fantastically and puts out some excellent results.

Robert K Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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