Have you ever seen a photo of water and wondered how they get the water to look so silky and smooth? The answer is a trick, all you need is a tripod and a DSLR or digital that lets you shoot in full manual.

Set your camera on the tripod and set it to manual mode. If you have the ability, shoot in RAW.

Here’s the trick; squeeze your aperture as far up as it will go. Remember, aperture numbers are like fractions; bigger numbers mean a smaller opening and you want the smallest you can get.

Make sure your ISO is 100 or as low as it goes, so the camera doesn’t try to compensate for the tiny aperture.

And now lower your shutter speed as far as you can without overexposing the shot – even in daylight you can often get up to a shutter speed as long as one second – especially if you’re working with a lens that lets you drop to, say, f32.

And that’s it! You only need a second for the water to blur beautifully. If you can get more than a second then you can into some truly beautiful effects. Enjoy!