Which Eye Do You Use?

[BottomBracket]

Hi All,

The 'goofy eye' picture in the People's section got me thinking about what eye we use for taking pictures. The term, as I learned minutes earlier, is attributed to those who use their left eye for shooting. I am goofy eyed then, and if it's of any interest, I am right handed. I am wondering too if the dominant hand has any influence on which eye we use.

So.... which eye do you use?

[neil_r]

I am naturally right handed yet I am left eyed with both a camera and a gun :confused:

N

[Belmondo]

I'm right-handed, and I tend to use my right eye.

I discovered not long ago that when I use my left eye, I'm much less likely to have a crooked horizon. For some reason, I tend to slightly rotate the camera slightly counter-clockwise when I shoot with the right eye. Weird.

[DWilkin]

I use one of them there digital cameras with the screen on the back. That way, I can use all three eyes at once.

[mvonditter]

Hi All,

The 'goofy eye' picture in the People's section got me thinking about what eye we use for taking pictures. The term, as I learned minutes earlier, is attributed to those who use their left eye for shooting. I am goofy eyed then, and if it's of any interest, I am right handed. I am wondering too if the dominant hand has any influence on which eye we use.

So.... which eye do you use?

I'm right handed and shot with my left eye until it gave up on me. Now I am the right (one eye) wonder with great telly vision.:lol:

[Jackal]

I'm right handed but 90% of the time I use my left eye. The other 10% is me giving my left eye a rest. :p

[thomascanty]

I know we had this discussion once before, about a year ago, but I can't find it with a real quick search.

I use my right eye. It's my dominant eye, which is a good thing, because it's physically impossible for me to squint my right eye shut so I could use my left instead. That's the result of being hit in the right temple by a flying baseball bat when I was about five years old.

[Tom W]

Right eye to the camera. Lately, I've been working on keeping both eyes open though, particularly when shooting moving objects. Especially moving objects that might find their way towards me. Like baseballs....

[condyk]

Right eye for me naturally ... but optician tells me I am left eye dominant and so I need to experiment with using my left eye and see what happens!

[JBillings]

Hmm. Good question. I am right eye dominant and right handed. Shoot my rifles with my right eye. Shoot my camera with my left eye. Always have, and never really thought about it. It just feels natural.

[jfrancho]

I'm right eye, but shoot with both. Right handed, but golf lefty, hockey lefty, baseball switch hit, skate and snowbaord goofy.

[alan sh]

Right handed but use my left eye to focus. No idea why.

[kevin_c]

I use my left eye, It goes back to before I had to wear glasses - My right eye is cr*p! It also saves me smearing my nose all over the LCD screen (except when holding vertically).
I don't use either eye to shoot a gun as I don't have one :)

[Rob612]

I am naturally right handed yet I am left eyed with both a camera and a gun :confused:

N

Funny to find another one with the same attitude ! Left eyed and right handed. Actually I am almost fully ambidexter, but still my strong hand is the right one. But I do write with the left. Strange things happen in this world... :D

[ShadowFlyP]

I'm left handed and right-eye dominant. But to me it was always intuitive to use my right-eye anyhow because then you can keep your left eye open also. When shooting with a 50mm lens it's almost no different than normal sight! :)

[TammieO]

Let's see...right handed, golf right handed, bowl right handed, archery right haned, hand-gun right handed..oh yeah, right eye to the view finder.

[O/confusion]

Right handed, left-eyed photographer--I started out that way without giving the matter much conscious thought many years ago when I bought my first camera, and I've never really found a good reason to change.

I think it just felt easier that way to brace the camera body really steadily, and in a more centred position (since most SLRs have more of the body hanging off to the right of the lens mount) that lets me keep both upper arms tucked in tightly to my chest, especially when shooting vertically and with the shutter release to the bottom, left hand supporting the lens. I guess it might look a bit awkward to onlookers!

regards,
Terry

[picture-this]

I'm left handed and left eyed. I really try to use my right as it seems to fit the camera better but it's so much harder for me.

[deedas]

I shoot with my left eye. Write with my right. Skate and snowboard with my left (goofy.) And the few times I've played soccer, I kicked the ball with my left foot. So I guess I'm a lefty that writes with his right hand.

[MTalley]

OK, here's a different take. When I had my Point and Shoot camera, I used my left eye. Now that I have a DSLR, I use my right. Why, you might ask? Instead of having to wear reading glasses all the time, my optometrist fitted me with a weaker contact lens on my left eye so I can see things close up with it (i.e. LCD viewfinders) and a stronger one for my right eye so I can see things far away (i.e. through an SLR viewfinder).

Though I have found that I can usually use either eye, depending on the diopter adjustment on the viewfinder. Given all that, I typically use my right eye (and I'm right-handed).

[CappuccinoDavid]

I am naturally right handed yet I am left eyed with both a camera and a gun :confused:

N

Same here, I'm partly blind in my right eye so I use my left for shooting. But when I write I use my right hand. That is why I used a Nikon long time ago because it was mostly a left handed camera.

[davepop]

I use my right eye, but I have tried the left eye and it does feel quite good. I have to think to use my left eye though.

[rfreschner]

I'm right-handed, but use my left eye - it's been dominant since I was a child (a long, long time ago :lol: ).

[JaertX]

I use my dominant eye.

Seems like a good idea to use your dominant eye, same importance as they place on using your dominant eye when shooting a rifle. I was told to determine which eye is dominant, point at an object 20 feet away with both eyes open; close one eye at a time and see if your finger lines up with the object. That's your dominant eye.

Is that the correct way?

Anyway, I forced myself in the beginning to use that eye and it's the one I always use, no matter what I'm shooting.

[Rob612]

I use my dominant eye.

Seems like a good idea to use your dominant eye, same importance as they place on using your dominant eye when shooting a rifle. I was told to determine which eye is dominant, point at an object 20 feet away with both eyes open; close one eye at a time and see if your finger lines up with the object. That's your dominant eye.

Is that the correct way?

Anyway, I forced myself in the beginning to use that eye and it's the one I always use, no matter what I'm shooting.

Yes, that is the correct (at least the quickest and simpler) way to see what is your dominant eye.

I can't use my dominant for shooting a rifle because - don't ask me why - for a rifle Im absolutely right handed. But I do use the left eye for camera and for handguns.

[Wazza]

I'm left eyed in shooting
Left handed in writing
But strangley, right handed in sports.

[tim]

Right handed, right eyed. I use my left occasionally when my left eye gets tired from squinting during a long session, but it feels wrong. I should try and get used to using both.

[napolar]

I'm left eyed in shooting
Left handed in writing
But strangley, right handed in sports.

Wazza - That is not that strange, same here.

[4nR]

both at the same time. thats because i use the lcd screen all the time. on a film camera though im right eyed (though left handed)

[tumbleweed]

Right handed, right eye dominant but focally blind, so left eye to the camera.

[HJMinard]

I'm left eyed in shooting
Left handed in writing
But strangley, right handed in sports.

The strangest I've seen is an old friend who threw (American) footballs with his left hand but baseballs with his right.

Having an eye dominance that doesn't match up with hand dominance is actually quite common ... not for me, though (right eye, right-handed).

[froman98]

I use my left eye. I'm right-handed. I prefer my left eye because it's not as bad as my right and because my nose smudges the screen less. :) I wear glasses and depending on what I'm doing I'll keep them on or take them off to frame a photo.

[Sydor25]

Right handed and I shoot with my right eye.

[JSolie]

Right handed, and right eyed, though I sometimes use my left. Fortunately, I haven't had the need for glasses yet. My wife is right handed, yet left eyed, which makes things interesting for her..whether taking pictures, firing a rifle, or backing up the car. My youngest son is left handed for writing, can throw and kick just about equally well both right and left. He can take pictures with either his right or left eye.

-- John

[Simon Spiers]

I have severe astigmtisum in my right eye so left fot me:(

[Tom W]

The strangest I've seen is an old friend who threw (American) footballs with his left hand but baseballs with his right.

Having an eye dominance that doesn't match up with hand dominance is actually quite common ... not for me, though (right eye, right-handed).

Well, I write, throw, and golf right-handed. I bat leftie. I eat with both hands, sometimes omitting silverware.

[johnnybfan]

I'm right handed & use my right eye. My wife is lefthanded & uses her left eye. I think that is pretty much the way it goes for most everyone.

[Gary W. Graley]

Right eye dominant
Right handed
but I mouse left handed, reason is so I can use the mouse and have my right hand free to
enter on the numeric keypad, just always seemed logical to me, plus it makes others not
to want to mess with my computer with the mouse being on the 'wrong' side ;)

But boy, I'd give my left hand to be ambidextrous :)
G2

[Salleke]

Hi All,

So.... which eye do you use?

There is one option missing in the poll. The use of both eyes. I mostly shoot with my right eye on the VF and my left eye open. It gives me a greater vieuwing field and makes framing much easyer (in my humble opinion). That way i can react faster to changing situations. Especially when shooting cars and panning it's a great advantage to keep both eyes open, so i don't loose the car out of my site when the mirror is up at 5 fps. That way i see the car (or other fast moving objects) continuesly and that makes panning more natural and smoother. Also when you are triggering the shutter you can keep tracking (panning) the camera and the subject very easy and stadyer.
Even when i shoot people i keep them both open, that way i see if someone is entering my frame and can yell stop earlyer, so i don't have my composition spoild with a half person in my picture.
Or if i have to shoot in very dark places it's much easyer to frame and aiming if i keep both of my eyes open. And to me it feel like i'm seeing the things without a camera in between.

[karusel]

Left eyed, right handed, left footed on a snowboard, rightfooted elswhere. For some things it doesn't matter to me if I use my left or right hand. Also, sometimes I catch myself shooting with a camera and tele lens as if it were a bow and arrow. I'm weird. :D

[fortinaa]

Right handed, and right eye in the viewfinder. I usually try to leave my left eye open for moving objects. I started out using the right eye just because it seemed natural. I've never even put my left eye to the viewfinder... I'll have to try it, but I know I can only close my left eye, or both, but not just the right.

[Perfect_10]

both .. but then I'm crosseyed .. :lol: :lol:

[jfrancho]

both .. but then I'm crosseyed .. :lol: :lol:Wouldn't that allow you to use both at once?

[mgash]

I use my right becasue I am blind in my left. Kinda limits my options!

[FlyingPete]

Left eyed, right handed.

I used the fact that I prefer my left eye as an excuse to get a motor winder back in my film/manual focus days, as I couldn't wind the camera on whilst it was up to my face!

[cfcRebel]

Right handed, use phone on right ear, but left eye in the viewfinder, dribble (basketball) with left hand too. Weirdo, i know.

[jfrancho]

Now that we're throwing the ears into the mix, I am left eared, since I am deaf in my right ear. Except when my MIL calls...

[Perfect_10]

... dribble ... with left hand too. .. .
maybe you should shake harder with the right hand .. :lol: :lol:

[Bruce Hamilton]

I'm a cyclops, I only have one eye. ;)

[SeanH]

I am naturally right handed yet I am left eyed with both a camera and a gun :confused:

N
Ditto

[Sicily1918]

What if you have a third eye on your forehead and you shoot with that one? :mrgreen:

[FlyingPete]

What if you have a third eye on your forehead and you shoot with that one? :mrgreen:

Only Tuataras have those, and they are not particularly good photographers.

[BottomBracket]

Only Tuataras have those, and they are not particularly good photographers.

Ah, tuataras, the world's only living rynchocephalian.

It is interesting to note all the various combinations of camera eye-eating/writing/shooting/etc combinations. It looks like the right handed/left eyed are definitely in the minority, me included. I've tried shooting with my right eye, but it feels a bit uncomfortable and strange. I guess it all boils down to what is comfortable to us.

[karusel]

I'm a cyclops, I only have one eye. ;)


Any relation to Leela (http://simpsonovi.comics.cz/Futurama/Leela.gif)? :D

[C.S.I.]

I am naturally right handed yet I am left eyed with both a camera and a gun :confused:

N


Ditto (although your SUPPOSED to look at the front sight with both eyes----im guilty of it too :o )