One eye or Both eyes?

[freybear3]

When you photograph,

do you use one eye and close the other, or do you keep both eyes open?


I noticed that i close one eye, and when i open it i always am blurry for a second or two. So i tried photographing with both eyes open, but it was hard for me to focus my attention on the camera.

Is this normal?

[Japaslavian]

I don't think anybody photographs with both eyes open.
I think we only do when we take the picture-of-myself-shooting-in-a-mirror thing.
Because it looks weird to have the only visible eye closed, haha.

[candleman]

always one eye closed.

i believe sports photogs /photojournaliss keep both open to help keep an eye on the surroundings (like balls or sticks coming at head height or action happening around them.
i could be wrong

be sure to find out which eye is your dominant one. dpont use the wrong eye as you will screw up the focus easier and it takes longer for your eye to adjust.. OH.. and its bad for your non dominant eye to be forced to do the work.

*runs off to look for the test*
http://www.archeryweb.com/archery/eyedom.htm

i'm left eye dominant which sucs because i poke my right eye out when hitting the exposure lock button. haha.

[dcclark]

I have tried keeping both eyes open, just as an expriment -- I couldn't do it! Each eye sees something different, so it's hard to focus on what's in the frame without being distracted. I ended up unconsciously closing my other eye.

[curmudgeon_01]

For just general shooting, I use have only one open. When I am shooting dance, I try to keep both open. I agree it is more difficult to focus on exactly what is in the viewfinder that way, but I can see outside the view better.

[strangehours]

One eye.

I've often wondered if you're better at making decisions regarding framing and composition using one eye (the left? - it's connected to the right side of your brain) than the other. I imagine the differences would be small, and it's hard to imagine how you might construct an experiment to verify it.

[BabetteKD]

I keep both eyes open, and my eye not against the viewfinder. I do this so I can see my surroundings better:
Is there someone going to walk through?
Is an authority figure approaching to make me put my camera away?
Is there a better shot to the left/right?
Is some baseball/soccerball/football going to hit me? (my brother takes many sports, thus, there are many kids practicing nearby)
Where is my dog?

I always post-process everything, and I take as many pictures as possible. I've always believed in "more is better", so I always have a large choice of which picture is best, which can become the best, etc.

When I use my S60 (no viewfinder, full touch screen) I obviously don't close any eyes

[inkista]

Primarily with one eye, but definitely have both eyes open if I'm shooting birds-in-flight, or something else that's moving--no other way to find the target and/or give yourself the timing margin you need, especially if you're shooting with the narrow field of view that a 400 prime gives you.

[OsmosisStudios]

Ive only ever used this when Im either A) following something thats moving fairly quickly (motorbikes, cars, etc) or B) when Im in a busy area and am looking for people entering my frame.

[rediguana]

Originally Posted by freybear3

do you use one eye and close the other, or do you keep both eyes open?

Much of the time, just the eye on the viewfinder. However I believe that learning to keep both eyes open is very useful for sports, photojournalism and wildlife phototgraphy. It is particularly important the longer the lens, as you need to be able to see what is happening around the subject - this is of course less of an issue with wider-angle shots as you can see more of the activity in the viewfinder itself. I'm personally not very good at it yet, and need quite a bit more practice with the technique.