There are few things more atmospheric to shoot than bodies or streams of water, and few better times to shoot them than early on a spring morning when there’s enough atmospheric chill to let you capture the moisture in the air.

But if you’re wondering why when you point a camera at haunting fogs drifting over riverbeds they completely vanish from your snap, don’t worry. There’s an easy technique you can deploy for accentuating rather than eliminating misty effects.

Choose a low ISO value

You want to capture as much detail as possible, including things that the naked eye can’t really see. For vivid colours and draw-me-in depth, set your camera’s sensitivity as low as you can. Preferably ISO 100.

Go for a lengthy exposure

There’s two ways to take pictures of water. A fast shutter speed will freeze action in an instant, so is perfect for picking up droplets of water bouncing. For a misty and romantic morning river pic, however, you want a long shutter speed of several seconds. The movement of the water body and tiny droplets in the air will smooth out in to the soft image you want.

Setup a tripod

It’s only the water that should be moving in front of your lens, so steady your camera with a tripod. Ideally, you don’t even want to touch the shutter release button and risk the tiniest bit of movement. Either use a remote release or program the self timer to open the shutter after you’ve taken a step back.

Use a narrow aperture

Unless you’re after a particular effect using depth of field as well, your picture is going to be more effective if everything other than the water is pin sharp. This means using a narrow aperture with a high F-number. F16 is a good place to start. Don’t worry about under exposing – just make the shutter speed longer.

It’s a technique that’s not just good for rivers and early morning dews. Waterfalls look spectacular when photographed this way, and if you use a neutral density filter, you can make any time of day look like early morning.