No this is not a fancy Photoshop trick. I stood in rain for near two hours waiting for the rain to stop and wind to calm down. The wind finally calmed down for a couple of minutes, but the rain never stopped. I stacked a 3 stop ND filter in front of my 100-400 lens to smooth the rain drops. It's a straight output from SilkyPix, not even USM or curve applied in Photoshop.