This review proposes a structured approach to analyzing conventional radiographs of adult hips by focusing on alterations of radiological bone density, femoral head contours, and the joint space. Conventional radiography enables detecting subtle changes in cortical contours and joint space width due to its high spatial resolution. It is limited to the detection of cortical changes in areas to which the x-ray beam is tangent. It has reduced sensitivity for the detection of trabecular bone and medullary changes. Radiographic findings in common hip disorders, such as osteoarthritis, osteonecrosis, transient osteoporosis, and subchondral insufficiency fractures, are correlated to changes on MR imaging and computed tomography.