What dose shooting from the hip mean?

What dose shooting from the hip mean? Okay may-be it sounds Dumb.

but I really dont know.

Hi Candice, my interpretation is, when in situation where its impossible to see through the viewfinder such as crowds and very odd angles the camera is fired above at arms length using the lense pointed in the general direction of your shot. Many good photojourno`s aquire a very accurate line with this method as it is a hit and miss affair a good reason to have HS pro camera gear in the media game

 

Hope that answers your question

In a gunfight it meant pulling your gun out of your holster and firing without taking the time to bring it up to eye level and aim. I guess if you shot a photo from your hip with a camera it might mean that, but it isn't really a photographic term.

As someone who does it regularly, it means shooting at waist level without using the finder. It's a matter of percentages - sometimes you get the framing just right, and sometimes you don't. Even if you're not interested in being a street photographer, it's good training if you can frame the photo without the camera.

<i>it isn't really a photographic term.</i><p>

 

I'll have to disagree with Mark on this. Street photographers use the term all the time. There's even a book called <i>Hip Shot</i> in which a photographer did everything with the method I described above.

My understanding is that this phrase comes from the world of TLR users (probably any camera with a waist level finder, but originally tlr's). Since there's no prism to look through you can frame your subject without the camera raised to your eye as with an slr. Many photographers use this method so that the subject is not looking directly into the lens as is the common inclination when being shot by a photographer with an slr covering his/her face.

 

<br><br>

-WH<br>

<a href="http://www.firstlightphotographs.com">http://www.firstlightphotographs.com</a>

I learn something every day.

I've never heard it used in reference to TLR shooting and I've heard the term a lot.<p>

 

The book I mentioned is by Ken Heyman and can be found <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0893812935/qid=1102821672/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1865204-7554439?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">here.</a> Very interesting book, worth picking up.

While rangefinder and slr shooters can, and do, shoot from the hip, it's usually with a wide lens that will mask focus innacuracy, or with a pre-focus method. Sure this is shooting from the hip, but think about it, cameras with a waist level finder allow you to get a much more precise composition and focus, they were <i>meant</i> for this kind of shooting. People were doing this originally with trl cameras and later with the many 6X6 slrs with waist level finders, long before 35mm slr and rangefinder users were, and probably with much better results generally.

W.H., I understand what you're saying, and while it's true that composing, focusing, and shooting with a TLR at waist level may be done from the hip, that's not what the expression "shooting from the hip" typically refers to.<P>

For what's it worth, with practice, composition and focus can be estimated relatively accurately (though perhaps not perfectly) when shooting from the hip.<P>

<center><img src="http://mikedixonphotography.com/korsubsleeper01.jpg"></center>

Mike is right, W.H. is wrong.

 

Any waist level finder camera can be used at hip level, but that's never what the term has meant.

Haha, I don't think it's necessary to polarize this as you're doing Jeff. I think we're all correct. Sure the term is commonly used now by people shooting with cameras without waist level finders, but it ORIGINATED with tlrs and 6x6 slrs. This is true. The term has been around for a long time. The earliest use I know of goes back to Diane Arbus (who I believe favored a tlr).

Do you have a reference to Arbus using this term? I've read pretty much everything, been to the show twice, and never seen it used.

Indeed, the source I was referencing was using the term to describe her style, and it was not a direct quote from Arbus. My mistake.

20D hipshot.<BR><P>

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Actually, Mark Ci got it right. The term did originate with the gunfighters of the old west but has now come to mean any action or decision that is made quickly and with little preparation or acting instinctively. The term is used in a wide variety of contexts outside of photography. A business executive who is known to make decisions quickly could be described as having a shoot from the hip management style for example. In the photo context Jeff is right in that it is generally used by street phtographers especially those that use 35mm rangefinders.

heh...love the expression of the lady in Brad's hip shot. I will translate it for you... " go ahead and take my pic...you are coming back in the next life as a rodent." (~_=)

Some contributions here seem to be verbal hip-shots (including this my own one) but they are pleasingly few compared to other forums / newsgroups on the net.

I always assumed people take butt shots with hip shots.

Shooting from the hip = Pictures taken by cool people.

The term shooting from the hip is a figure of speech and Peter got it right. It is meant to get great pictures of spontaneous moments without much time to react. Grab shots might be another way to explain it's usage.

The phrase <I>shooting from the hip</I> has nothing to do with photography, and

means, more or less, to speak or act impulsively, without thought or plan. A <I>hip

shot</I> is solely a photographic term. <BR><P>

The two expressions are disjoint and have no elements in common.

"The phrase shooting from the hip has nothing to do with photography, and means, more

or less, to speak or act impulsively, without thought or plan. A hip shot is solely a

photographic term. "

 

Growing up in the Pacific NW in a family of hunters, I oft heard this phrase. It referred to

the ability to hit prey/targets by simply drawing and firing one's weapon in a single stroke.

It was a term of praise and endearment and many of us practiced the technique but few

mastered it. Most shooters shouldn't even attempt the technique (because they can't think

fast enough and may hurt someone). The ability to think and

react fast is not a negative thing. I've not heard the phrase used outside of the world of

hunters and never with negative implications. I assume the negative use of the term arose

from amateur hip shooters taking out livestock and friends.

"I've not heard the phrase used outside of the world of hunters and never with negative implications."

 

Hmmm... I've almost always heard "shoot from the hip" used to flag speech or action as "impulsive" or "done without sufficient care" but with the very occasional meaning of "just give me your first impressions".

 

This example (from a lecture by an Army general about military law) is as good as any:

 

'...if you do not know, I expect you to say, "I have got to check with one of the individuals that works for me and I will get you an answer right back." Do not shoot from the hip because in the business that we are in this approach gets us in trouble about as quickly as anything.'

It can mean anything, I like to shoot from the hip when the camera is on strap on shoulder. Sometimes subjects dont like to be shot so I shoot from the hip with my finger on the shutter release on the battery grip. not the best way to do things but with 8 shots taken from the hip, one of them gotta be good. this below was taken from the hip, as you can see it is kissing couple, I didnt want to seem like a pervert or something.