Is this the fashion now

Nostromo

Nostromo

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I don't follow photography influencers (or any type of influencer), but they pop up on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube shorts and reels. It seems that holding your camera at arms length, sometimes in just one hand, as if it's some kind of semi-automatic handgun is the way to take photos now. Holding your camera in one hand or at arms length isn't a very stable platform for taking photos, well I don't think so anyway.
I do use the LCD on the back of the camera sometimes if I'm hand holding, it's usually because I'm using the camera is very low to the ground. Also if I'm using a tripod, I'll use the rear LCD (although sometimes I will still use the viewfinder).
 
Nostromo said:
I don't follow photography influencers (or any type of influencer), but they pop up on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube shorts and reels. It seems that holding your camera at arms length, sometimes in just one hand, as if it's some kind of semi-automatic handgun is the way to take photos now. Holding your camera in one hand or at arms length isn't a very stable platform for taking photos, well I don't think so anyway.
I do use the LCD on the back of the camera sometimes if I'm hand holding, it's usually because I'm using the camera is very low to the ground. Also if I'm using a tripod, I'll use the rear LCD (although sometimes I will still use the viewfinder).
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Very common now given the technology. I've been to a lot of weddings these last few years and camera in one hand, touch screen to focus whilst pressing the button is a very common way to shoot now.
 
Well, if you're a thief, it don't 'arf make snatching the camera easier! ;)
 
I only know one photographer who shoots with one hand. And that's because he's usually got a Go Pro in the other. He always seems to get good results. And I think that's largely because cameras have evolved so much. Nowadays they can be so light, and with IBIS too, it makes it easier to do.
 
Maybe I’m set in my ways but I find it difficult to shoot like that
Always use the viewfinder unless doing macro working from a tripod low down , even then I often lay down and use the viewfinder, getting back up isn’t as easy as it used to be :oops: :$
 
When you first take photos using your smartphone it probably becomes your de facto way of photography. When I first started, using film of ISO 100-200 and slow zooms meant having to be very stable and of course having to put the viewfinder up to your eye to compose.
 
I often shoot one-handed but never at arms length.
I use a wrist strap and with a thumb rest on the Fuji one-handed shooting, using the viewfinder, works fine for me. :)
 
I don't use the back screen with the camera held 18" in front of my face like you'd use a phone but I will use the back screen when holding the camera higher or lower and / or tilted if that gets me the composition and perspective I want as doing this can be quicker and more dignified than trying to get my body into the position so I can get that composition and angle and use the evf.
 
Presumably they're doing this because it looks good in the video and shows you what's on the back of their camera... I would guess that when they're not making videos they'd probably hold their camera in a more conventional way?
 
Fashion coupled with familiarity...Young folks are used to taking 'phone pics and so take an "Arms length" approach.
In the same way that us old timers regard 85mm or there abouts as an ideal portrait lens, youngsters (Anyone under 55 :cool: ) are un-acustomed to seeing themselves
in this way...they are more used to seeing themselves in a 28mm / 35mm ish perspective, so now these lenses are becoming popular portrait lenses...and we kid ourselves we are taking "Environmental" portraits. (y)
 
skullfunkerry said:
Presumably they're doing this because it looks good in the video and shows you what's on the back of their camera... I would guess that when they're not making videos they'd probably hold their camera in a more conventional way?
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One I follow on Y'Tube (Optical Wander) has often said he holds the camera with one hand only when makiing content for his channel so that viewers see the screen, otherwise he always holds it up to his eye.
 
That technique doesn't work for handguns either, except in the movies:)

My advice: ignore "influencers" and do whatever works for you.
 
Garry Edwards said:
That technique doesn't work for handguns either, except in the movies:)

My advice: ignore "influencers" and do whatever works for you.
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Perhaps there's an element of "spray and pray" in both fields?

It occurred to me that the arms length camera hold supports the quick rotation "look at me I'm a ninfluencer making content" shot.
 
Proper gangsta photographers shoot at arms length with their gun, err camera, held at 90 degrees, in portrait orientation. 20 shots rattled off in 2 seconds is bound to get at least one good one.
 
Some of the replies to this original question are bonkers.

IAs I mentioned earlier, I have worked with dozens of wedding photographers over the last couple of years and another one this weekend. This is very much a modern way of shooting photographs given the technology and focussing we have with electronic viewfinders. The screen is a large copy of the EVF. Touching the screen to move the focus point is a thing. So a lot of photographers using mirrorless equipment with ridiculously fast AF in these scenarios are using thescreven to focus and compose.

I personally dislike shooting this way and still choose to use a viewfinder, whether optical or EVF, however it is a very modern way of taking photos in certain industries.

I wondered if photographers thought it bizarre when we left composing on 4x5/8x10 ground glass for tiny viewfinders?
 
Downhill Specialist said:
I wondered if photographers thought it bizarre when we left composing on 4x5/8x10 ground glass for tiny viewfinders?
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I was walking across Hampstead Heath once, many years ago, when I came across a photographer with what looked like a Gowlandflex. It was a fairly serious setup, with assistants and make up people, as well as several models. What impressed me was that he was actually hand holding it!

 
Erty said:
Proper gangsta photographers shoot at arms length with their gun, err camera, held at 90 degrees, in portrait orientation. 20 shots rattled off in 2 seconds is bound to get at least one good one.
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This. With some common sense they may also pick faster shutter speed not some 1/30 nonsense
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I was walking across Hampstead Heath once, many years ago, when I came across a photographer with what looked like a Gowlandflex. It was a fairly serious setup, with assistants and make up people, as well as several models. What impressed me was that he was actually hand holding it!

Click to expand...

I follow a couple of photographers using similar with some good results. I had a Speed Graphic once but never did use it handheld with the rangefinder.
 
I used a miniature (6x9) Century Graphic, hand held with a wire frame finder, for a while. It also had the optional "telescope" finder.

I can't say that the results would have added to my reputation... :oops: :$

Century Graphic 34th.jpg
 
About a year ago I was sitting having lunch outside The Tower Of London, a tourist walking past a a brisk pace, just stretched her arm and camera out to the side and fired off a few pictures without even glancing at The Tower
 
Since moving to a Fuji mirrorless setup, I've used the rear LED screen almost exclusively for framing and focus, only using the EVF when it's too bright to see the rear screen.

I don't really have a reason why, it's just preference.
 
The photographer at a wedding I was at over the weekend had her iPhone mounted above her camera. switched the iPhone from videoing events to using it for her photo list etc. meaning that often she was using the actual camera with one hand.
 
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