left/right eye dominance?

this is kind of a silly questionare... do any of you have diffeculty

choosing wich eye to use because of left eye dominance? does

everyone know you have one dominant eye over the other? how about

very prominent nose's getting in the way? do you use both eyes, to

avoid poppin a blood veseal in one. please excuse my spelling.

told you it was a little silly. i thought of these issues because i

have 20/50 vision. my right eye is managable, yet far from perfect,

so i train to use my left. i can't afford a 1v wich is friendly to

eyeglass wearers, and i'm a poor candidate for contacts thanks tim

corridan.... p.s. not sure about the catagory of this question.

I find I use the right eye for portrait orientation shots and the left for landscape ??

 

I never thought about it much, jsut seems to have developed.

interesting

Funny, I was JUST pondering this the other day. I use my left eye in both portrait and landscape orientations with my SLR. My left eye is actually worse than my right uncorrected, but I wear contacts.

No, my left eye has always been dominant for photography, though I can also use the right without trouble. Yes, eye dominance has been discussed on photo.net many times, and I knew about it even in high school. I hold the camera at an angle to my face in order to clear my prominent nose. No, I think I'd pop a blood vessel if I tried to look through the viewfinder with both eyes. ; )

very funny

I'm left-eye dominant, big-time. You can try this to find out: Make an "OK" sign with your dominant hand. Hold out the "O" at arm's length and site something off in the distance. Close one eye and look through your "O" to site something in the distance. Which eye do you use to look? ;-) <--- left-eye dominant winky-face.

mabee this is why i can only get 15 clay pidgens out of 25

by the way. my nose has it's own zip code

I have a prominent and somewhat crooked nose, bent in the direction that is disadvantageous for shooting with the right eye. So of course, being a stubborn cuss, I shoot with my right eye.

 

Not sure how you'd pop a blood vessel just using your eyes....

i was 5 minutes late to work today, but nose was on time, sorry, i heard em all.

I was once taught a trick to learn which is your dominant, more accurate eye.

 

It goes like this:

 

- Focus on a subject in the distance. Any object is fine.

- Using your left hand, point at it with your index finger.

- Close one eye and check if your sight is in target with the interest object.

- Close the other eye and do the same observation.

- To conclude, note that the eye you should use is the one that's closer to the interest object while closing your "viewfinder" eye.

 

You'll be plesantly surprised with the results. I hope this help determining your dominant eye (regardless of your nose!, :D).

Which eye is dominant has little bearing on photography. One eye may be weaker than the other, but that's different. Even if you shoot with both eyes open, it hardly matters.

 

The dominant eye is the one that acquires a "target," and the other eye follows. Shooters with a shotgun, pistol or rifle with iron sights are taught to shoot with both eyes open. Rapid fire events are much easier if you use your dominant eye, or train the more convenient eye to be dominant. Most people can use either eye if they concentrate.

I am left eye dominant and have often wondered if this means that I am composing more using the right side of my brain than the left?

I just took the test and discovered I've been using the wrong eye for 30 years ; -)

Tim,

 

No, everyone doesn't have a dominant eye, some ppl can have equally dominant eyes, but most have one dominant. Dominant eye and weak/strong vision in one eye are not the same thing. Your weak vision eye can be your dominant eye and will still "aquire the target" over the stronger vision less dominant eye.

 

Looking through a viewfinder, with or without dominant or weaker or stronger vision eye, should have no effect on composing. I shoot my camera and my shotgun with both eyes open, using right dominant eye through viewfinder or sighting gun.

 

I spent 4 years in USAF Marksmanship School and was a competitive trap shooter for about 10 years. Luckily, I hold several national and state titles. Using both eyes allowes you to see DOF - try driving a car with one eye closed. Shooting a shotgun and sighting with the non-dominant eye, i.e., with left dominant eye you mount gun on your right shoulder and sight down barrel with right eye, will cause you to cross-fire everytime because your left eye, which is not directly behind barrel, will "aquire target" in relation to the barrel/front sight. When it appears that sight is pointed at target it will actually be pointed far to the left of the target.

 

This phenomenon is not at work when looking through a viewfinder.

 

Cliff

I'm right-handed but left-eyed. Always have been. I don't know if they have any relation to

each other. Interesting question, though.

Cliff - it took you four years to get through marksmanship school??? You AF guys always did things different - I was Navy for 12 years and probably spent less than a week (cumulatively) training to use firearms.

 

For what it's worth, I use my left eye for the viewfinder and shoot with both eyes open about half the time. Interesting thread.

actually i just thought i'd open up a can of worms. I am right eye dominent, and actually shoot about 20 out of 25. but the truth is , i am having trouble with the vision part. i'll have to work it out, until i can afford a more friendly camera to eyeglass wearers. my nose is also a problem, although not quite as big as arizona, it can be a bummer with heavy photo taking. if i use my left eye, the right eye is subject to more sunlight, hence more, harder squinting. i thought i would write this post because it is one of those sometimes, un-examined things of sometimes, importance. thanks tim

Derrick,

 

LOL! "...and probably spent less than a week (cumulatively) training to use firearms." I guess that is reason you Navy guys have to use such *large* guns to hit anything!! ;>)

 

Note, I said *in* Marksmanship School not attending school. It was my

permanent duty station.

 

Cliff

Left/right eye dominance does affect the use of a viewfinder, too. I find it nearly impossible to focus with both eyes open and looking through the viewfinder with my weaker right eye. That's why I look through the viewfinder with my left eye -- which is a nuisance, because I can't turn the review knob without taking the camera off my face.

I'm actually right eye dominate but learned to shoot with my left eye, presumably because my father shoots with his left and I just learned from him. Fast forward a few years and I started having a horrible time focusing. Less then 50% of my shots would be infocus. And not just slightly, WAY off. So I went to the eye Doc and discovered I was actually right eye dominate and had bad stigmatism which just made things worse. So long story short, I retrained myself to shot with my right eye and things couldn't be better. I can actually see to focus! It can be done both ways, but for me right is definitely better.