Experienced photogs, do you have a leading eye ?

Mountainsandh

Just wondering. I noticed since I've my Pentax K-x that I use my left eye for focusing. It's a pain because with my (normal sized;)) nose I sometimes brush against control buttons. When I bought the camera I hadn't thought about that at all, because somehow it wasn't an issue with my previous Fujifilm Finepix camera.
I wear contacts so even though my left eye is the weakest, with the contacts it shouldn't make a difference.

Do you have a leading eye ? and have any of you trained yourselves to use one eye rather than the other ?

I've tried hard to switch to the other eye, but it's just so uncomfortable. I can do it allright, just doesn't feel right, and it's hardship.
Is it something that I should just train myself to do, or do you think it's just like leading hands, and you just have to make do with it ?

I don't get a chance to talk to photogs (amateur or otherwise) in everyday life, so your help is really appreciated.

edit : just had a thorough test done for laser eye surgery recently and optician confirmed and said it was very common that's why I'm asking question, I'm sure if it's common some of you might have had same problem.

Promac

Yeah most people are left-eyed. I would just stay with it as there's no point in adding unnecessary elements of discomfort. I think as you get used to the camera you'll get used to the controls and learn to keep the ould schnozz out of the way.

Tallon

Promac wrote: »

Yeah most people are left-eyed. I would just stay with it as there's no point in adding unnecessary elements of discomfort. I think as you get used to the camera you'll get used to the controls and learn to keep the ould schnozz out of the way.

Really? I've never come across one!

I'd say it would be very awkward for me, I'll try when I'm, home

Barname

Shiny

Promac wrote: »

Yeah most people are left-eyed.

I have never seen one of these people. Unless you are talking about
facing towards the photographer who is taking the photo in which
case it would be the left eye from your point of view??

DaireQuinlan

Yeah I thought most peoples' dominant eye was the right eye ?

Actually, just wiki'ing it, apparently about 2/3rds are right eye dominant, and 1/3rd left eye dominant. I thought a much larger proportion as right eye dominant but there you go

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance

A mate of mine is left eye dominant, he hates film cameras with a wind lever because they constantly poke him in his right eye. He can't use my FE2 for example because you have to pull out the film lever to turn on the meter.

Promac

No, I mean most people favour one eye over the other when looking at things.

You can tell which eye is dominant by holding a pen up at arms length and pointing the tip at something distant like part of a door or window or a light switch. Keeping the tip of the pen in one place, alternately close your left and right eyes. When you are looking through your dominant eye the pen will be in the right place but when you're looking through your weak eye it'll move a couple of inches to the left or right.

Whichever eye you were looking through when the pen is in the right place is your dominant eye.

Promac

That's weird Daire - I've been telling people it's the left one for years!

Maybe it's cuase I'm left-eye dominant and just assumed that was the norm.

Tallon

Promac wrote: »

No, I mean most people favour one eye over the other when looking at things.

What?

Hugh_C

Yeah I'm a lefty, wasn't always though, I think it's because my eyesight is better in the left than the right, but I find it "uncomfortable" with the right eye now ...

Composition comes easier on the left!

Promac

Tallon wrote: »

What?

Read the link Daire posted.

Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye dominance or eyedness[1], is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other[2]. It is somewhat analogous to the laterality of right or left handedness; however, the side of the dominant eye and the dominant hand do not always match.

Promac

Another weird and little-known eye-fact is that everyone has a blind spot in their vision. It's the point at the back of your eye where the optic nerve is. There's a small circular spot that isn't sensitive to light. Your brain just tricks you into thinking you have uninterupted vision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_%28vision%29

DaireQuinlan

Promac wrote: »

Another weird and little-known eye-fact is that everyone has a blind spot in their vision. It's the point at the back of your eye where the optic nerve is. There's a small circular spot that isn't sensitive to light. Your brain just tricks you into thinking you have uninterupted vision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_%28vision%29

Yeah It's something to point out a particular type of religious nutcases when they start rabbiting on. Interestingly enough, Squids and Octapusses (Octapods ? Octapusses ??!? ) don't have the problem, as their light sensitive cells are mounted around the right way, with the connecting nerve fibres at the back of the retina.

-ahem- "Octopuses" apparently.

Promac

Yep cephalopods.

I love the religious eye debate actually. "The eye is so amazing that only god could've created it". The eye isn't that amazing any more.

magicbastarder

here's another odd fact - there is a point when you are (i think) a couple of months old, that if someone covers your eye for just a few days, you remain blind in that eye for the rest of your life. it's the point at which the neurons in your brain decide which eye they're going to take input from; usually, it's roughly 50/50, but if there's no input from an eye it's ignored. and it's irreversible, your brain just ignores that eye from then on.

I use my left eye (I'm also left handed, if that means anything) and my nose is often pressed against the LCD.

I bought one of those add-on eye cups to try and resolve the issue, but it didn't work out too good. It pushed my eye away from the camera, which is good, but with the added distance, I couldn't see the whole Viewfinder on the camera (the meter/aperture/etc. settings were gone, so I'd have to move my face around to look down into the viewfinder to see the meter etc.)

It was just hassle.

DaireQuinlan

magicbastarder wrote: »

here's another odd fact - there is a point when you are (i think) a couple of months old, that if someone covers your eye for just a few days, you remain blind in that eye for the rest of your life. it's the point at which the neurons in your brain decide which eye they're going to take input from; usually, it's roughly 50/50, but if there's no input from an eye it's ignored. and it's irreversible, your brain just ignores that eye from then on.

Oh I'm so off to snopes for this one

Promac

Promac wrote: »

Another weird and little-known eye-fact is that everyone has a blind spot in their vision. It's the point at the back of your eye where the optic nerve is. There's a small circular spot that isn't sensitive to light. Your brain just tricks you into thinking you have uninterupted vision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_%28vision%29

On that little demonstration, if you look directly at the A, the X turns into an A, aswell.





.... Or is that just me?

Xiney

I'd always assumed I was left eye dominant since my left eye has better vision (-5.25 r, -5.75 l :eek:) but I found out a few years back at an opthamologist that my right eye is dominant.

I'd always put my right eye in the viewfinder, but I'd thought that might have been from when I was just a little girl and my dad showed me how to use my first p&s.

sheesh

I'm left eyed but right handed went clay pigeon shooting once and was not able to hit anything

Xiney

sheesh wrote: »

I'm left eyed but right handed went clay pigeon shooting once and was not able to hit anything

ha ha ha!

might not just be the eye/handedness though. I found it very tough and I'm a very good shot - on slow/nonmoving targets.

Crispin

Promac wrote: »

Yep cephalopods.

I love the religious eye debate actually. "The eye is so amazing that only god could've created it". The eye isn't that amazing any more.

Going wildly off topic but you reminded me of this: link

smelltheglove

Never thought about it before but it seems I'm right eyed, y right eye is far better than my left even though its -3, on what someone else said though, I never wear contacts with my camera, I find my eyes dont focus quite as well with contacts so just use my glasses, I even have a piece for my camera so I dont even need my glasses but I find that very strange really.

pullandbang

Most adult males will have one dominant eye - it's less common in females and young males. Harks back to hunting and aiming rocks or something. Your eyes will also change fairly dramatically at two points in your life - 15 and 40 years old. Don't ask why, it just does.

It shouldn't be a major issue unless your trying to aim something like a dart or a shotgun. If you're right handed and left eye dominant (like me), pointing a shotgun can be a bugger unless you can put the gun on your left shoulder. The camera isn't much of an issue other than rubbing your nose on the LCD.

swingking

I'm completey right eye dominant. I lost some of the sight in my left eye when I was 16

Tallon

swingking wrote: »

I lost some of the sight in my left eye when I was 16

Me too.... then I got a girlfriend

charybdis

I'm right eye dominant, but I have tried using my left eye as an exercise. I was fine using my left eye (I have at least 20/20 vision in each eye, or so the optician told me) but the ergonomics of the camera made it easier to use my right eye, although I sometimes shoot verticals with my left eye.

Do people who use their left eye adjust their camera settings with the camera raised to their eye?

Promac wrote: »

I love the religious eye debate actually. "The eye is so amazing that only god could've created it". The eye isn't that amazing any more.

The eye is so magical that only God could've created it and Earth is so suited to our physiology God must've made it that way and bananas fit right in our hands, just the way God intended.

youllneverknow

im right handed but use my left eye in the view finder. its more comfortable

magicbastarder

if god invented my eyes, i wish he'd at least have given me perspective control or something else cool like that.

smelltheglove

pullandbang wrote: »

Most adult males will have one dominant eye - it's less common in females and young males. Harks back to hunting and aiming rocks or something. Your eyes will also change fairly dramatically at two points in your life - 15 and 40 years old. Don't ask why, it just does.

For women also the eyesight changes with childbirth, mine was actually worse then it is now, a bit crazy, I remember at 19 being -2.25 and -2.75, after 1st child I was -3.75 and -4.25 and after the second I am -3 and -4. Quite a bit of jumping around.

sunny2004

I use my trusted guide dog for most of my images

Promac

magicbastarder wrote: »

if god invented my eyes, i wish he'd at least have given me perspective control or something else cool like that.

Decent night vision would've been much better than all that irrational fear of the dark.

And how about a zoom function too?

sineadw

I'm very strongly left eyed. And I have the same problem with my film camera daire.

I've been finding recently that my right eye feels very strained after a long shoot, almost like I'm straining it by keeping it shut all the time. Odd, huh? Does anyone else get that?

magicbastarder

just tried using my right eye with the camera - ain't gonna happen.

daycent

I've been diagnosed with the eye disease Keratoconus in the last few weeks. It a degenerative eye condition, with no cure. It affects about 1 in 2000 according to the eye specialist (or 1 in 1000 according to wikipedia :rolleyes:) In the past there wasn't much that could be done for it, with sight deteriorating to the point that a corneal transplant might eventually be needed. Luckily for me, a treatment has been developed in the last few years that usually stops further deterioration. I'm getting it done next month in an eye clinic in Dublin. I'm unlucky in that I have it in my right eye and not my left (who needs a left eye ) but lucky in that it's been diagnosed early and I shouldn't need glasses or contacts, fingers crossed.

If you suspect your eyesight is after getting worse over a short-ish period of time, it's worth getting checked out. I always had perfect vision (or so I thought) It was only because of photography that I realised something was wrong. The strange thing is; apparently I have 20:20 vision when I use both my eyes! Can't figure that one out.....
One thing I'll say is thank god for autofocus!

Chorcai

Hugh_C wrote: »

Yeah I'm a lefty, wasn't always though, I think it's because my eyesight is better in the left than the right, but I find it "uncomfortable" with the right eye now ...

Composition comes easier on the left!

The right side of the brain deals with spatial and forming visual images.

humberklog

Chorcai wrote: »

The right side of the brain deals with spatial and forming visual images.

I'm open to correction on this but I think the right eye's info goes to the left of the brain and the left eye goes to the right. For balance? or so I think I read somewhere.

I shoot left eye and am left handed. Shooting with the right just feels so wrong.


Poll!

Chorcai

humberklog wrote: »

I'm open to correction on this but I think the right eye's info goes to the left of the brain and the left eye goes to the right. For balance? or so I think I read somewhere.

I shoot left eye and am left handed. Shooting with the right just feels so wrong.


Poll!

Crossover, but it's more to do with body control rather than thinking. Like if you have a stroke on the left side of the brain you lose control of the right side of your body.

Promac

According to wiki it's even worse:

both hemispheres control both eyes, but each one takes charge of a different half of the field of vision, and therefore a different half of both retinas. There is thus no direct analogy between "handedness" and "eyedness" as lateral phenomena.

humberklog

Promac wrote: »

According to wiki it's even worse:

So you're trying to say there is a god?

Chorcai

humberklog wrote: »

So you're trying to say there is a god?

Wiki should know.

njburke

I had always thought that both sides of the brain were linked through the visual cortex.

.Longshanks.

Just checked and I use my left eye too. Right hand but it just feels wrong using my right eye

Mountainsandh

Thanks everyone, was gone for the day so only reading the thread now.
What the optician did that time for the laser operation suitability check to determine whether your left or right eye is dominant, was to trick me into this : (since I'm telling you the trick you may want to test it with other people who don't know, if you're curious)
~ tell the person to form a triangle with their hands, by joining the tips of their 2 thumbs, and tips of their other fingers, you know, like a little triangle window that they can look into.
~ give the person a focus point straight ahead, with me he had 3 letters on that luminous screen they use.
~ tell the person to stretch their arms so the triangle window/hands is/are as far from your face as your arms can stretch, and ask the person to look at the focus point through the hand/window.
~ then ask them to slowly bring the window closer and closer to their eye (don't say which eye!), until their hands touch their face, while still staring at the focus point. In my case he was actually holding and sort of guiding my hands slowly towards my face and he let me go off my own steam as we nearly reached my nose.
>>> Left eye dominant people will spontaneously bring the "window" to their left eye, right eye dominant to their right.

Hope I make sense, I'm French and sometimes find it hard to explain things in English.

@Promac thks for all info, and yes, I think I'll just get used to it, not hitting the wheel as much as I did already. By the way, I think that optician actually reckoned that most people were left eye dominant, don't kknow where he got that from.
@KKV, thks for mentioning the eye cups, had heard about them but didn't think much of the idea so I'll rule that out too.
@Sheesh and Smelltheglove, I'm right handed too, and yes my left eye is actually the least short sighted, so that's really strange. And yes the contacts are awkward for focusing, but I find the glasses worse !

As Promac says I'm sure I'll get more used to it as time goes, it's just on the Pentax there is a live view button that I keep hitting with nose (a right pain), and sometimes I brush against the wheel as I lift the camera to my eye for example, and change exposure in the process :mad:.
I haven't read the manual for my camera yet, but was thinking, wouldn't that be great to have a quick button to lock settings in place for a shot or two, like a keypad lock on a phone ? Maybe that's there but I don't know how to use it.

Sorry for the long post, thanks again to all.:)

http://currentphotographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/PENTAX-KX-BLACK-GROUP.jpg

smelltheglove

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Thanks everyone, was gone for the day so only reading the thread now.
What the optician did that time for the laser operation suitability check to determine whether your left or right eye is dominant, was to trick me into this : (since I'm telling you the trick you may want to test it with other people who don't know, if you're curious)
~ tell the person to form a triangle with their hands, by joining the tips of their 2 thumbs, and tips of their other fingers, you know, like a little triangle window that they can look into.
~ give the person a focus point straight ahead, with me he had 3 letters on that luminous screen they use.
~ tell the person to stretch their arms so the triangle window/hands is/are as far from your face as your arms can stretch, and ask the person to look at the focus point through the hand/window.
~ then ask them to slowly bring the window closer and closer to their eye (don't say which eye!), until their hands touch their face, while still staring at the focus point. In my case he was actually holding and sort of guiding my hands slowly towards my face and he let me go off my own steam as we nearly reached my nose.
>>> Left eye dominant people will spontaneously bring the "window" to their left eye, right eye dominant to their right.

@Sheesh and Smelltheglove, I'm right handed too, and yes my left eye is actually the least short sighted, so that's really strange. And yes the contacts are awkward for focusing, but I find the glasses worse !

I just got my hubbie to do this and his ended up right in the centre, so I guess this means no leading eye, both the same?

Have you tried the eye cup adapter? You might like this, I hated it but Im sure some people find it usefel.

Skinback

Promac wrote: »

Yep cephalopods.

I love the religious eye debate actually. "The eye is so amazing that only god could've created it". The eye isn't that amazing any more.

Ah no....the eye really is astonishing, amazing.....whoever made it.

Mountainsandh

smelltheglove wrote: »

I just got my hubbie to do this and his ended up right in the centre, so I guess this means no leading eye, both the same?

Have you tried the eye cup adapter? You might like this, I hated it but Im sure some people find it usefel.

I know, I tried it with my hubby and he did the same .
That's why I edited and stuck in, tell them to aim for the eye, not saying which eye. Say, bring it close to your eye, singular, they should cop on... maybe it's just hubbies (snigger) .

edit : when he grasped it he got right eye dominant

No haven't tried the eye cup, if I come across some for cheap, might give it a go, you never know, I might take to it.

Mountainsandh

Actually this would be handy, got to go practice...

http://www.april-fools.ws/images/stories/gross-eyeball-trick.jpg

theboat

I'd automatically go right eye, but I find myself swapping over fairly often. It's usually because I find my focusing eye gets tired if I'm taking a while to compose a shot or get it in focus. I guess I just I need to get quicker :rolleyes:

ThOnda

Seems too much typing to read it all.

Yes, I do press buttons on the back of my 5D with my nose on regular basis. It is not so bad, only when chimping, I have nose prints on the display

smelltheglove

Lol my display gets covered with makeup!