Choppy water can add to the character and story of your water photos. However, strong chop can draw your viewer’s eye away from your subject. I’ve got a tip for you on how to add a touch of smoothness to choppy water and strike a good balance between the two.

The trick is to use a local contrast tool in the negative direction. Reducing contrast will smooth edges and soften detail. In the video, I use Lightroom’s Texture slider, but the same technique can be used in Luminar with the Clarity filter or in ON1 Photo RAW with Dynamic Contrast. I also recommend using a mask to limit the effect to only the choppy water.

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