Left eye dominance: can it be changed?

<p>I wore glasses to correct severe nearsightedness for almost fifty years. My right eye was much worse than my left. Consequently, I became left eye dominant and I aimed my cameras through my left eye. A few years ago I underwent intraocular lens replacement surgery. My vision was corrected to 20/20 in my left eye and 20/15 in my right! It was amazing.<br>

I still shoot left eyed, however, and I'd like to change. Yes, I know the great Joe McNally shoots left eyed but he hasn't got any nose to speak of. I, on the other hand, have a good substantial nose. When I bring my Nikon up to my left eye my nose covers the directional keypad and the bridge of my nose prevents me from using the AF-ON button.<br>

Has anyone successfully changed their dominant eye? What did you do? Wear a patch like a pirate?<br>

Al</p>

<p>I've been left-eye dominant my entire life and haven't found anything that can change it. I've tried all kinds of tricks to cope, but nothing has made a permanent change. Fortunately I have a squishy putty nose so it's never been a problem with photography.</p>

<p>I do occasionally use the right eye for the viewfinder when I need to keep my left unobstructed - for following action - but I get only a vague picture through the right eye. The crossover is worse when the magnification through the finder with the right eye is identical to what the left eye sees. When there's a greater difference it's a little easier to use the right eye on the viewfinder. This technique works okay for following action with an autofocus camera. I just center the target and don't worry about composition. For precise manual focusing and composition I need my left eye.</p>

<p>It's been inconvenient at times because I'm primarily right handed and struggled with shotgun shooting - I could never get the knack for keeping both eyes open because my left eye would mislead me slightly. Conventional paper punching handgun target shooting, such as 10-meter air pistol and .45 bullseye matches, were slightly inconvenient, but I wasn't the only participant who tried tricks such as blurring over the left side of the shooting glasses with a bit of transparent tape, or blocking it completely. With two-hand shooting I cock my head a bit and aim with the left eye over the left shoulder. With rifles I just squint, which is a problem only with long matches where it can cause headaches. But I haven't shoot any target matches in many years so it's no big deal.</p>

<p>If you wear eyeglasses try a translucent bit of something over the lens. For example, one of those non-adhesive static-stick protective sheets for camera/phone LCDs might work. Or a bit of removable Scotch tape (the type used for some crafts for temporary sticking). I've even used a Post-It note.</p>

<p>I suppose you always put a right angled viewfinder on your camera and use it like a waist level TLR.</p>

<p>Never really considered it a problem. There is little difference between my eyes which probably accounts for that. I find myself using either eye unconsciously and the right one of course when I want to follow subject matter with both eyes. My nose isn't particularly small or spongey, so I guess it must be the viewfinders and camera construction that prevents it from becoming an issue for me. I like the right angle VF approach and use it occasionally in some public places as it seems to make myself or my subject more comfortable.</p>

<p>One thing that can help - a long eye relief finder, which Nikon sometimes calls "high eyepoint". Makes it easier for folks with glasses or prominent proboscises. The downside is lower viewfinder magnification. But I've liked the long eye relief finders on my two Nikons that had 'em: the F3HP and D2H. I don't need to mash the camera against my face to see the entire frame, while also retaining peripheral vision. Helpful when other people are within elbow and shoulder distance.</p>

I've never considered left eye dominance a problem, so other than rare occasions I don't even try thee right eye.

However, I have noticed that after a long day of polo photography, with one eye closed, driving back afterwards I notice

some eye strain, or at least somewhat uneven focus.

<p>I am left eye dominant, too. I decided that my equipment should meet my requirements and not vice verse. For that reason I sold my Nikon FM-2n (the wind lever sticks in the eye). I would look for a camera that fits better or live with it.</p>

<p>I am also left eye dominant and, like several of the above, have never considered it a problem. The question kind of reminds me of the old Peanuts cartoon where Linus asks Lucy, ' are you ever aware of your tongue? Aargh! Aaaargh!'<br>

http://thankfulthornshaveroses.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/are-you-aware-of-your-tongue.html</p>

<p>Like you, I am left-eye dominant but right-handed so I have to 'cross over', meaning that my right eye is obscured by my hand. This is no problem except that I have to move the camera away from my face to cock the shutter. I have tried to put the camera to my right eye, but it somehow feels wrong and I find it more difficult to compose the picture with my right eye. Any neuroscientists out there who'd like to explain that?</p>

<p>Eye dominance can be changed with training. For instance, consider how amblyopia is treated: An eye patch is used to cover the dominant eye, so that the "weak" eye is used and trained. However, bear in mind that the training is mostly muscular.</p>

<p>Most people misunderstand eye dominance. It's not at all like hand dominance, in that both eyes feed visual information to both hemispheres. Everything in the left visual field of both eyes feeds to the left hemisphere of the brain, and everything in the right visual field feeds to the right hemisphere. Perhaps eye dominance is driven by motor dominance (one hemisphere controlling the muscles of the opposite eye), but it is also driven by visual acuity. The sharper/better eye tends to dominate. </p>

<p>Eye dominance is important for stereoscopic vision. Wherever there are parallax errors in the visual information, as there will inevitably be, information from mostly the dominant eye forms the visual perception. Thus we don't see the out-of-focus/out-of-parallax part of our visual world in double. However, those parallax errors are used for constructing and encoding important depth/distance information, so we do perceive these parallax errors in terms of a third dimension.</p>

<p>Here's the thing, though: When you close one eye, the other eye dominates, by default. Eye dominance in photography is more a matter of habit than anything. So just start using your right eye. It will feel awkward at first, but you'll grow into it.</p>

<p>I'm left eyed, have worn glasses since I was a toddler and also have a big nose but have never found either to be a problem. I would be very hesitant to start playing with an eye patch or doing anything else affecting your eyes without speaking with your eye doctor. I would love to be 20/20 and 20/15 and would leave well enough alone if it were me.</p>

<p>I too am left eye dominant. It is not a problem for photography, but it is a big problem when shooting a shot gun. I finally habituated myself to close my left eye as soon as a bird flushed. I could only sight own the barrel with my right eye. At first I had to concentrate on closing the left eye. Soon it became habit. After a while, I was able to forget about closing the eye, I could keep both eyes open, but sight with the right. </p>

<p>I found the habit carried over to photography and that I now shoot with the right eye automatically, no real thinking required. </p>

<p>I'm left eye dominant, however on occasion I'll switch to right to avoid putting a big, greasy nose-print on my LCD.<br>

Other than The fact that I'm switching which eye I use, it doesn't cause me grief. I just have to think about it. I'm sure, with practice, you can train yourself to switch eyes now and then. </p>

<p>My right eye has always been worse than my left, so when I first got into photography I was able to use my left eye with no glasses while shooting. Except for driving, I could function without glasses back then. It was when I bought my first camera with a thumb pad on the back (Nikon F100) that I bought a -4 eyepiece and began shooting right-eyed.</p>

<p>My schnozz was to blame for that. Over time -4 became a stretch so now I've learned to shoot right-eyed with glasses on. I really need some bifocals because I can't work any camera menu, etc. adjustments without pulling my glasses down on my nose.</p>

<p>Rhinoplasty is the solution.</p>

<p>I don't have a problem using either eye. I am however right 'eared' in that I find it completely impossible to carry on a conversation on the phone if I hold it to my left ear.</p>

<p>I'm right eared too, Andrew. I know exactly what you mean! I'm also left-eye dominant, but right handed---except when shooting a bow---which is very, very rare anymore. Left-eyed and right handed shooting a rifle makes for dangerous times, fortunately also a rare occasion anymore.<br>

With a camera it's no problem, actually it's rather nice since I don't have to close my right eye to concentrate on the viewfinder, since it is largely covered by the camera. <br>

We are a weird species!</p>

<p>As Sarah Fox says, dominance can be changed with habit, and also, I find, for other reasons. I had a nasty accident a couple of years ago in which my trochlear nerve was crunched, and as a result my eyes both now tilt, the left about 5 degrees down at the inner end, and the right about 4 degrees down at the inner end - the result being skewed horizons. My brain decided that the right is correct, and attributes all the error to the left, so it seems as if I have one normal eye and one that's tilted 9 or 10 degrees. I used to be left eye dominant, but now am decidedly right, and have largely switched at the camera as a result. I have binocular vision in about the top 1/3 of my field, split for the rest, diverging more and more, the lower I go. My four feet are quite far apart!</p>

<p>One interesting thing I never noticed until after the accident is that, along with the dominance effect noted above, one image is overlaid atop the other. My left eye's image always covers the right unless I squint to diminish it, and as a result it's hard to discard what is now spurious information. I don't know if this will ever change, rather doubt it. I also don't know, but am guessing, that this is a part of dominance, but don't know whether a lifetime of dominance determines which image lies on top, or whether which image lies on top determines dominance. </p>

<p>Anyway, I'm right-eyed now, but I have to take extra care with horizons, or else all my photographs come out funny. </p>

<p>I'm left eyed and find that my nose will sometimes push buttons I don't want pushed on my Pentax K-7. But it's not a problem on my usual cameras (4x5 and MF).</p>

<p>What's wrong with a patch? Aaargh!</p>

<p>I don't think the left eyed person appreciates how lucky they are becuase most cameras are designed for the left eye with the result the camera fits on the cheek beside the nose. with the right hand snuggling into the body below ... very stable.<br>

Cameras which support my position would be the Leica, Pentax and other SLRs, every digital camera I have owned ... cameras which from memory didn't Speed Graphic and other LF do not usually have a viewfinder so are neutra as would be the MF SLRs and TLRs.<br>

I always am amused when I see a right eyed person holding a camera to their eye and the right hand and arm are up in mid air [ the approved way as found in countless sources]<br>

]</p>

<p>Funny how you never tend to think of this as being an issue. I always use my left eye to look through a camera viewfinder, so I guess that makes that the dominant eye but I can't easily use my right eye as for whatever reason I simply cannot close my left eye whilst keeping my right eye open! So, I look with the left eye and close my right eye as that is what I have always done and it doesn't seem too much of an issue to me.</p>

<p>When you start to look at things carefully comparing each eye, I can see a noticable difference between my eyes, one eye is just much brighter than the other, but I don't notice that until I start looking through the camera and then trying to cover my left eye to see how the same scene looks through the right eye. In vague optician terminology they say that one of my eyes is slightly cloudy but as far as I can remember it has always been that way.</p>

<p>I can understand all of those who've just accepted their left-eye dominance. But unfortunately, that doesn't do much for the OP. My situation: I'm right-eye dominant but it's my bad eye and it also isn't easily correctable with lens (I've got a stigmatism).<br>

To address the OP:<br>

1. Yes, eye dominance can be changed. It tends to be easier to deal with when you're younger though.<br>

2. I've provided a link on this issue. Here's a hint if you want to look at this issue in more detail: shooters (I mean people who shoot rifles competitively...as in competition or the olympics, very precision shooters) have looked at this issue exhaustively. And especially b/c that's a sport (rifle) that benefits from a match between eye and hand symmetry when it comes to dominance, it's not so simple to just get a left-handed competition or match-grade rifle (yes, they make such things). So you get a lot of shooters at the junior-olympics level who will work to change their eye dominance. http://www.positiveshooting.com/eyedominancemain.html</p>

 

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<p>When I bring my Nikon up to my left eye my nose covers the directional keypad and the bridge of my nose prevents me from using the AF-ON button.</p>

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<p>If it's not a silly question, which Nikon? The larger cameras are generally easier for left-eyed use (more space between the eyepiece and Nintendo control, AF-On button, etc.). Back in the day, this was one of the excuses - sorry, ergonomically valid reasons - I had to buy an F100 rather than than an F80.</p>