Which eye do you shoot with?

[Schruminator]

Just a random question I was thinking about: which eye do you raise the viewfinder to when you're shooting?

I instinctively raise the camera to my left eye and always have. However, I was debating if it'd be worth learning to use my right.

That is, with my right eye still on the viewfinder, in theory I could use my left to look past the camera and survey the scene-- then quickly switch to using my right when I needed to aim, compose, and shoot.

Obviously it's not too important in the grand scheme of things, but I was just curious where you guys stood.

 

[rpt]

Left eye. I have learned not to close the right eye. It does help. One can anticipate better.

Edit: I am right handed but I can do some things almost as well with both hands. And when I ride my bicycle, I get on from the right side while all my right handed friends get on from the left side
I guess I am just messes up

 

[alexanderferdinand]

Left eye. And leave the right relaxed open.

 

[RLPhoto]

Right eye.

 

[Cariboucoach]

Left eye. Eye where glasses and my left I seas better.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

Right Eye ... when I read the title, I thought, what kinda random question is that .. but having read a couple of reasons, I think it is an interesting question ... it'd be nice to see what others have to say.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Right eye.

 

[Timothy_Bruce]

Right eye most of the time. Left eye in some close ground macro situations.

When I am in vertical and a flash blocks my view I close the left eye.
( or when there are strong lights blinding the left one )
Most of the other time I leave it open. helps with models and to be aware off actions out of the lenses field of view.
It is a bit complicated at first too see different things with both eyes but it gets better with time.

 

[MARKOE PHOTOE]

BOTH EYES but LEFT EYE on the VF. There must be a correlation with the handedness of the shooter. I'm a LEFTY and shoot left-eyed.

Curious what the relationship is with other shooters.

 

[RS2021]

Right

SLR camera designs are asymetric in good many cases though not all...and favor the right eye position.

Take your typical canon SLR and place it to your right eye and your left will still clear much of the body and will be able to provide normal eye view.

Place it on the left eye and parts of the body will obscure more of the right eye view.

 

[steven kessel]

Left eye. It's my dominant eye, meaning it's the primary eye that I use for vision. This may come as a surprise to most readers, but nearly all of us have dominant eyes. Normally, the dominant eye is on the same side of you as your dominant hand. So, most right handed people are right eye dominant and vice versa. I'm part of the 20% of the population that is cross-dominant, meaning that I'm right handed but my dominant eye is my left eye. Curiously, my vision is weaker in my left eye than my right eye, although with glasses it corrects to 20/20.

Here's a simple test to determine which of your eyes is the dominant one. Extend your dominant arm completely and raise the first finger. Look at it with both eyes. Close one eye while watching the finger. Then, open that eye and close the other eye. Does the finger appear to move when one of your eyes is closed and remain still when that eye is open and the other is closed? When the finger doesn't appear to move you're looking at it with your dominant eye.

 

[notapro]

I will shoot with both eyes, but mostly with the left.

 

[Roadtrip]

Right handed - left eye dominant. Tried to make myself shoot right-eyed but it just wasn't as comfortable (or natural) as using my left eye. Guess I'm one of the 20%'ers....

 

[KevinB]

My Good one !! ;D

 

[KyleSTL]

Right (dominant eye). Don't wear glasses (always had 20/20), and I close my left eye when looking through the VF. My dad has always shot with his left eye, which I always thought was weird, but it could be just his dominant eye. The ergonomics are better for using right eye on SLRs (and even more so on rangefinder cameras), but I guess one will typically use their eye with better vision.

 

[RS2021]

Speaking of dominant arms/eyes...

Just as when you enter a class room and vast majority of the chairs have the built in swing up writing tables placed optimally for right handed writers....the side on which the camera hand-hold or "grip" is placed asymetrically probably favors the dominant arm of majority of consumers... the right. That is what they will use to carry the camera or to swing into position. Left hand dominants will have to just adjust

This also places the right eye dominantly (not sure if right eye is dominant in most people or not) and ergonomically everything ends up favoring right handed folks.

 

[cayenne]

Left eye. It's my dominant eye, meaning it's the primary eye that I use for vision. This may come as a surprise to most readers, but nearly all of us have dominant eyes. Normally, the dominant eye is on the same side of you as your dominant hand. So, most right handed people are right eye dominant and vice versa. I'm part of the 20% of the population that is cross-dominant, meaning that I'm right handed but my dominant eye is my left eye. Curiously, my vision is weaker in my left eye than my right eye, although with glasses it corrects to 20/20.

Here's a simple test to determine which of your eyes is the dominant one. Extend your dominant arm completely and raise the first finger. Look at it with both eyes. Close one eye while watching the finger. Then, open that eye and close the other eye. Does the finger appear to move when one of your eyes is closed and remain still when that eye is open and the other is closed? When the finger doesn't appear to move you're looking at it with your dominant eye.

Yup, I was just about to chime in with the dominant eye aspect.

I found out about it when I was working with my eye Dr. about getting bifocal contacts, and we went for the 'mono vision' option...where my dominate eye (right) is fully corrected for distance, but my other eye (left) is slightly under corrected for distance, allowing me to better see things up close.

It would sound like it would be weird, but after about 5 min, I stopped noticing anything, and could see distance and up close again with my contacts in.

The brain is an amazing thing....

cayenn

 

[Rienzphotoz]

Come to think of it I've actually never seen anyone using left eye to view through the VF or maybe I just haven't noticed ...looks like there are quite a few people on CR who use their left eye ... this is what I love about CR, always finding out some new interesting info. Now I'm really curious to observe everyone who with a DSLR.

 

[lol]

I ran a poll on another photo forum on the subject of which eye was used, and it was near enough 50/50. I also asked about handedness, where the results were within line with the general population whatever that ratio was. Obviously the two are not tied together.

 

[Stig]

Left... and since some time now with right eye mostly open