Learn About Photography by Watching Castle

Are you familiar with the show Castle? If you said yes, great! If you said no, let me tell you about it! It's a murder-mystery show with some comedy, following a best selling novelist, Richard Castle, whose friendship with NYC's mayor allowed him to help with cases for the NYPD.

At this point, you're probably asking what the show, Castle, has to do with improving and learning photography. To answer you, there's a lot you can learn about watching this show. Castle is filmed very steadily and employs a good amount of photo techniques hidden in the filming angles. Simply pausing any part of the show will result in a good photo. Check it out here to see what I'm talking about.

One very important piece to Castle is mood lighting. This is what makes their show and stills exquisite. It's a show about solving murder, so you won't be seeing much happy and bright filming. 

When I first started watching Castle, I watched it to de-stress myself. One day, I was scrolling the television channels looking for something to watch, and there it was, on the SPACE channel, playing. I liked it right away, the music, the comedy, the characters,  and the writing. It was a nice show to sit back and relax to. To this day I have watched all seasons of Castle at least 3 times. I still look forward to watching each episode, despite having already watched it multiple times (it plays the same episode twice daily).

With multiple episodes of Castle watched, I started focusing on the details of the show, which included its filming techniques. I learned a lot by focusing on how the show was being filmed, and it helped me improve my own filming technique. So I was excited when I thought of this cool and interesting blog post.  What better way to learn about a topic, that's taught in the most standard and basic way, then by watching Castle!

Get ready to (literally) watch and learn!  But first, read..

1. Foreground Blur Makes Your Photo Gorgeous

Castle has a lot of foreground scenes where the person closest to camera is blurred out while only focusing on the people in the background. It is a very gorgeous way to capture an picture. It's creative and maintains a professional look because you see it on a large selection of television shows you might watch. The use of foreground blur is not exclusive to just Castle, thousands of television shows use this technique. I just like how Castle is filmed better.

Examples on how to capture foreground blur, Castle style. 

find two people in an intimate/annoying convo>>move behind said person talking >>snap reaction picture>> OR VICE VERSA>> BAM YOU'RE DONE.

Let's chat a little about "moving behind said person". The way in which you move behind a person is very important. You shouldn't position yourself directly behind them, use the rule of thirds. It puts most of the focus on the person behind the person you're behind. LOL. Allowing a little bit of foreground creates asymmetrical balance.

We should also discuss capturing reaction from the other person. When you want to get that perfect reaction caught on camera, you should snap the pic within a split second of the last word you know is the most shock-worthy. 

2. Leading the Eyes with lines..

Many of you know about this technique. The one where the use of lines plays a role in the outcome of the picture, creating a balance and sometimes straight and symmetrical feel. 

You can use lines any way you like, as long as it leads you or shows a difference. In this case (HA!), you see the police tape cutting across their chests. At first, I focus on tape and it leads me but then I start to look at the bigger picture and it almost feels like two different pictures because the tape has cut them off, to say. 

This type of technique is mostly seen as clean-cut, very simplistic images but their are no solid rules for this. You can use lines in messy, cluttered areas too.

3. They were FRAMED!

You can use the framing technique (like the photo below) to creatively frame your image. Take a look at this example.

This is a great example of framing! I think it's important to mix up your shots/photos with different angles and this one does a really good job of creating an interesting use of the human body posing, and not to mention, it gives it more depth and story.

That's all folks..

...for now. I'm sure there are more hidden photo techniques hidden in this awesome show. But for now, I will stop here. I want to leave you with this last thought though. When you do get around to watching Castle, focus on each scene and snap a picture with your eyes. The more you do that, the better the photographer you'll be. Photography is very much apart of film than you think!