Left eye shooting

[Alan Gage]

This could really go in any of the forums but figured this would be the best fit.

All my life I've shot looking through the viewfinder with my right eye while squinting my left eye shut. This works all right but if I'm shooting a bunch my eye starts to get very tired from squinting and I have to take a break because everything starts to get blurry.

With a few of my cameras/lenses I could leave my left eye open while looking through the viewfinder with my right eye but it took concentration and with other focal length lenses I couldn't do it at all.

Long ago I noticed that if I look through the viewfinder with my left eye that my right hand and the camera body block the vision of my right eye; allowing it to stay open but not interfere with what the left eye sees through the viewfinder. This was more comfortable but felt un-natural so I never shot that way. Not until a month or so ago anyway. I decided I'd try to force myself into the habit of shooting with my left eye and although it was tough to break the habit at first I was surprised that after only a few days it felt totally natural and was MUCH more comfortable; especially when looking through the viewfinder for an extended period of time waiting for one "moment". I wish I would have done this years ago.

So I can't be the only one that does this....who else? Or maybe I'm the only one that hasn't been doing this.

Alan

[cenelson]

I'm a left-eye shooter.... isn't that the right way to go about it?

The only camera I've owned with the VF on the right side of the bodhy was the Mockba 5.... and that felt quite strange to me.

[Kin Lau]

I'm left-eye'd naturally (and a lefty too), but I also occasionally shot with my right eye.

You can also mentally "turn the other eye off", so that it's open but you're not actually seeing with it.

[Malkav41]

I shoot with my left eye, as it's the stronger one. But also because I too got tired of squinting. Now being able to see and read the meter on my Pentax ME super, that's taken some getting used to as it's on the left hand side of the view screen in a kind of "dead zone" for my left eye if I look straight ahead. :mystery: No problem with seeing it with the right eye, I figure it was made that way as most people are "right eyed" just like they're "right handed".
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one who shoots "lefty". :Taking_Photo: < See even the smiley is a lefty.

[Peter Evans]

When in any dilemma such as this, the obvious solution is to throw more money into yet more equipment.

Until you read this message, you hadn't realized that the camera for you was the Konica IIIA. The viewfinder eyepiece is on the left, but it's life-size so you can keep the other eye open, and you advance the film with your left thumb.

There's also a very handsome East German 35mm leaf-shutter rangefinder of the early 50s (I forget the name but I think it starts with a "B") whose finder looks big and bright from the front (I haven't looked into it) and whose eyepiece is positioned for the left eye rather than the right. Hmm, I think the Fujica Super Six too has the eyepiece on the right (from the photographer's PoV).

[josphy]

Wow, well that is my revelation for the week.  I just tried it, and you're absolutely right:  if I shoot right-eyed and don't squint, I just freak out, but by shooting left-eyed my hand and the camera body block my vision so it's just infinitely more comfortable!!!  I will definitely give this a try, Alan.  Going to be a hard habit to break though as I'm so used to just brining the camera to my right eye.

I'm not sure if I could do this and manually focus though.  I'll have to test that out, but I'm not sure my left eye feels up to the task.

[Hoosier_Rich]

I'm a righty that's left eye dominate and have always used my left eye to compose a shot. It just seems more natural to bring it to that side. I also keep my right eye open when shooting,but not that it's to much an annoyance with a big back of a camera in front of it. It always seemed that everyone in pics I saw were using their right, so it made me wonder if I was backwards, but hey it works for me!

[Major Black]

I once shot a calendar in a weekend. I was a right eye shooter for years at that point.

By the time we got to Miss December, late Sunday night, my right eye was frazzled, so I tried my left. Wow! I discovered that it was sharper and cooler in color balance. By comparison my right eye has an 81A filter on it. I've been left eyed ever since.

[cenelson]

Mark, thank you for the laugh this morning. My skull is so full of crud at the moment that I'm seriously contemplating opening up some vents in it with my RotoZip! Laughter is better medicine....

:2yippee:

[Kevin Roach]

I'm right-handed/left-eyed myself. I always shot left eyed, even with a rifle. The only problem I ever had was with a cosina/voigtlander rangefinder. The "leather" gets covered in nose grease on those cameras.

[Alan Gage]

I discovered that it was sharper and cooler in color balance. By comparison my right eye has an 81A filter on it.

A couple years ago I noticed my eyes were doing similar things. If my left eye got tired from squinting and then I tried looking through the viewfinder with it the color balance was noticeably different. I also noticed it some mornings when laying in bed or when driving in the car. If I closed one eye the colors were quite different between my eyes. Other times it didn't seem as noticeable.

I was a little worried since I'd never noticed that before and mentioned it to the eye doctor. She asked some questions and we ran some tests to make sure everything was OK and nothing turned up. A little while later I finally realized what was causing it (at least in my case).

It was when one eye was more dilated then the other. Like if I'd had my left eye shut for a long time (it was in the dark) it would show colors differently then my right eye which had been open. The reasons I noticed it in the car and in bed was because many times in the car the sun would be hitting one side of my face so the light in one eye was much brighter, same for laying in bed in the morning. I found that if I turned my head so both eyes had the same light falling on them that in a minute to two I couldn't tell any difference between them.

I told my eye doctor the next time I was in and she congratulated me on figuring it out, I think she secretly thinks I'm a nut for noticing in the first place and then trying to figure it out.

Alan

[grizzz]

I took a BB in the right eye when I was a kid. It doesn't work all that well anymore. I've always used the right eye anyway cause it's just what has felt right. Now whenever I shoot manual focus I try to left eye it. I just cant seem to do it if I am rushing but if the camera is on a tripod and I have time to compose I always get better results left eyed. I just need to use auto focus and the right eye for sports type stuff. Just can't get the hang of the left eye. As far as squinting I do it with either eye. Gotta try to leave the right one open...

[Ronald Bishop]

Before computers I bought a Voigtlander with accessories which included a Kontur viewfinder, a neat little thing that fit into the cold shoe. It took me a long time to figure out that both eyes had to be open. I used it on my BL quite a bit.
   My dad always shot open gun sights with both eyes open, I tried it and it didn't work for me.

[Jack Fisher]

Well, FINALLY... You right-handed folks are coming around to seeing things the proper way.  We who have always been left handed and left eyed are in "our right minds."  Welcome to our world.  : - )

Jack - a "leftie" for 73 years.

[KirkT]

This is interesting. I wonder, if you are a "Split Brained Person" , if your photography would be different when using one eye or the other in regards to lateralization of the function of the brain"?