Last week we asked readers which eye they look through the viewfinder on their camera with. The poll caused lots of discussion and confirmed what I found when I did an informal survey of my friends. Here’s the results:
See the full discussion on the topic including some of the reasons people gave for this skewing towards the right eye in the comments on the poll post.
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45 Responses to “More People Use Their Right Eye than Left When Taking Photos” - Add Yours
September 30th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I’m a left-eye shooter but not a “natural” left-eye shooter. Used to be a right-eye shooter until I became100% blind in my right eye. My right eye remained that way, blind that is, for over a decade. I still worked as a photographer and videographer.
About thre or four years ago, new technology allowed for a repair to my right eye plus a lens implant. (I call it my Bionic Eye.) Right-eye now works great. Better than the left. It has a slightly bluish tint to everything but that’s not really bothersome. I’m still shooting with my left eye as it became habit… and I can’t seem to break that habit. (Not that I’ve really tried.)
September 30th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I surprised so many people use left eye to look through the viewfinder. For me it doesn’t fill very comfortable doing this.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
It would be interesting to do a slightly different follow up poll with these questions:
- use both eyes at the same time
- use both eyes in turns
- I’m a leftie and use the right eye OR I’m a rightie and use my left eye
- I’m a rightie and use the right eye OR I’m a leftie and use my left eye
The ‘both’ answers will probably be around 7% again if the same respondents take the poll.
I do however believe that the last question could turn out by far to be the smallest..
September 30th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Interesting result.
What I would be also curious about is how left handed people feel about the handling of cameras. I don’t know any camera where the trigger is not on the right side.
September 30th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I think the results would fall in line with right hand vs. left hand. No big surprise then on the percentage of left right ambidextrous.
September 30th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I’ll get in first and say that obviously there are some rounding issues with these numbers.
However, nit-pickery aside, this is an interesting result. Being a left eyed shooted it’s interesting to know that I’m in a minority. It does mean that when I one day get that Leica I’ve always dreamed of, I’ll have to train myself to switch
September 30th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
“What I would be also curious about is how left handed people feel about the handling of cameras. I don’t know any camera where the trigger is not on the right side.”
I’m left-handed and don’t have any issues holding a camera. But I only write with left (scissors for example I hold with right), so maybe I’m not the best example.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Another interesting thing would be how many use their left eye because they HAVE to…not out of choice. I am blind in my right eye so use my left eye but it is not exactly comfortable.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Opticians will tell you that everyone has one eye that is naturally stronger than the other. The ’stronger’ eye is the one most people use to look through a camera viewfinder – optical sights of a gun etc.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Doesn’t surprise me as most right-handed people are probably looking through their right eye. But, the eye-piece is on the left… so on some level I feel like it was meant to be held up to the left eye. At least now I realize why everyone’s advice to keep both eyes open doesn’t work for me. I have my right eye blocked by the camera while I look into the eyepiece with my left eye.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
I use my left eye but am left handed. It reminds me of the spinning girl experiment where most people see her clockwise and 5% of people can see her turning both ways. http://www.digmo.co.uk/news/spinning-girl-iq-test/ do you think theories are related ?
September 30th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
I’m entirely left-sided person and I don’t have any issues with my camera. It’s not that big deal as it is with computer mouse, especially if the mouse is designed for right-handed people ;)
October 1st, 2009 at 12:11 am
I use my left eye only because my big nose gets in the way if I use the right!
October 1st, 2009 at 12:19 am
maybe brain scientists insights could help this out but I would like to launch a theory ;-). Usually the left side of our body is controlled by the right side of the brain (and vice versa) and that right sided brainhalf is usually the creative side of our almost dual personality. For the eyes this is somewhat different : the right part of the brain gets the info from the left part of the vision of both eyes, and the left brain half gets the right part of the vision from both eyes. Our creative brain (right) would probably have easier access to the visual information of the right hemisphere, thus of the left part of the visual scene. Depending on cultural differences most of us read screens from left to right so maybe we scan our viewfinders more from the left side as well. So the right eye gets the info from the left part of our scene to the right part of the brain (creative). Our left eye would get the right part of the scene to the right part of the brain and that might feel a bit counterintuïtive maybe our creative righthandsided brain even pays equal attention to the right right part of the scene . This can of course all be bogus as well ;-) But it is not far of the anatomical reality I guess.
Maybe it could be a nice follow-up for research to see if pictures shot with the right eye show more creativity (of course from film/storage, not after post-processing)
There are some other dominances our bodily systems can be categorised under : hand dominance, most of us are righthanded BUT there is a huge cultural influence on this. Another dominance can be found when you stand on both feet and let your body fall forward, unless you want to hit the ground your body will always react by putting a (the same) leg forward to keep you from falling. Could be the same side you’re looking through the viewfinder with…
or maybe you come to close to your right hand that’s busy shooting and working the controls when you aim with your left eye, and is that a reason to switch to the right one… just plain practicallity.
I swap between both sometimes, mainly right I guess, it helps me to use both at the same time too when I want to track action that goes beyond what you can see through the viewfinder – not both through the viewfinder of course ;-)
October 1st, 2009 at 1:10 am
Thats a dominate eye thing, shooting is the same way. I feel awkward using my left eye. Stick out your thumb in front of you and open both eyes, then close one eye (starting with your right) Assuming your right is the dominate eye your thumb should not shift positions. Now close your right and open the left and your thumb will shift positions. Whichever eye doesnt “shift” your thumb’s location is your dominate eye. This is a basic technique when teaching shooters to determine this. You should always look through optics with your dominate eye, you’ll get better results!
October 1st, 2009 at 1:20 am
@mantis : that’s a nice test however as a scientist I find “in front of you” quite vague ;-) when you put you’re (dominant) arm out (probably right) your arm will most likely not be in the ‘absolute middle’, somewhat shifted to the right and hence less shifting as seen by the right eye; not very waterproof as a test ;-) Could you tell in more detail where exactly the thumb should be (in front of the nose, at x cm distance) ? Could this test be done without your own bodyparts (looking at a flower in a vase or something) ? Maybe some of us are shooting with the wrong eye ;-) a conclusive test may be as welcome to the quality of our pictures as good glass….
October 1st, 2009 at 1:48 am
well about 12″ (aka 1 ft) away from the middle of your nose works best (the shift in vision is most noticable), but you can do it on objects even farther away if you want. I actually just did a walk around the room poll here at work and determined out of the 10 sales employees that all of us are dominate right eye except one. Also as an interesting note it has nothing to do with dominace of any other body part because i am left handed and right eye dominate!
October 1st, 2009 at 1:58 am
I am lefthanded. and has no problem with the camera being controlled with the right hand. if you think about it. the computer mouse.. right handed too. it exist as a left handed item too. but most of them are for right handed.. i bet 99% of all left handed use a right handed mouse too.. just the same thing with a camera. you use the right hand. because that’s the way your equipment is build. to me. that is no problem at all
October 1st, 2009 at 3:57 am
That’s very interesting, does using the right eye through the viewfinder have anything to do with the vision in left not being adequate enough make a picture? I am near sided in my left eye, so closing my right eye gives me nothing but blur on my left eye….now that makes me wonder about others. And to the person who mentioned for the left-handers using the button for the right hand..I don’t think that matters. I am left handed but I also use scissors in my right hand…It just feels normal to press the button with finger on the right hand. Or it’s grown on me so I don’t pay attention to it.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:22 am
You might find this odd, or interesting but when necessary, I can use both eyes at the same time.
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Yea, you’re probably saying “huh?” right about now.
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First off, I’m right-eyed. But when I’m shooting events or scenes that require I follow an object I’m focusing on, but want to capture a second object passing by the first, I follow the first object in the viewfinder and I open my left eye and try to “see” or register both views in my brain. Then when I “see” the 2nd object coming towards my 1st, I know it’s shutter time!
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This helps me catch both objects in the image when they pass each other by.
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I developed this technique at airshows when 2 planes approach each other from opposite ends of the runway at a high rate of speed and I want to capture both in the frame.
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If you can manage the concentration levels required, it works flawlessly every time.
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This just made me think of that. Sorry if I’ve drifted off subject.
October 1st, 2009 at 6:45 am
lefty man here!
October 1st, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I’m a righty but view with my left eye.
For me it has nothing to do with which has the better vision because for years my right eye was WAY better than my left (btw: love lasik) but I’ve always used my left eye for aiming. (My Drill SGTs had a heck of a time teaching me how to close my left eye by itself.)
ANYWAYS I have found that I have better peripheral vision in my left eye and have a broader view of the whole scene that I am trying to capture.
October 2nd, 2009 at 2:45 am
I use both. Of course, I write and eat left-handed, but I throw right-handed, play golf right-handed, and kick right-footed. I play pool left-handed. I’m a mess really so it’s no surprise that I use both. I like using my left eye to be honest. It’s a different perspective.
October 2nd, 2009 at 2:52 am
I have my right eye to the viewfinder, but I use both eyes quite often as well, in the way Bruce described above. It helps a lot when you’re in the middle of the action, so you can keep looking for what’s coming, and what else is going on.
One of my instructors showed us something interesting when I was in school for photography. He suggested that if you were wanting to consider your composition more carefully it could help to use your non-dominant eye to look through the viewfinder. His thought behind this was that your dominant eye was too used to going *directly* to your subject, without really looking around the frame as much. When I tried it I definitely noticed this, you’re bound to notice more when you’re looking through that viewfinder with the “wrong” eye. ;)
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:15 am
I am a left eye shooter, which has been my weaker eye since birth (glasses since 3 y.o.) but I am a very dominant righty otherwise. I suppose that would put me squarely in the minority.
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:20 am
This is very interesting. I am Left handed and shoot with my Left eye. Since photography is an activity based in creativity I would have assumed more people would shoot with their Left eye because it feeds directly to the Brain’s right side which is the side usually associated with creativity and arts.
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:22 am
My left eye is dominant (along with my left ear and left hand), but I also wear eyeglasses and find that shooting left-eyed I end up smudging the right-side lens of my glasses when I move my thumb to make adjustments to the camera settings. Very annoying, so I’m working at retraining myself to use the right eye at the viewfinder.
It’s proving easier than expected and I’ll probably end up being able to use either eye equally well.
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:33 am
I shoot with my left eye, I think this is because I had battery acid in my right eye when I was four. My left eye has been my dominate eye ever since.
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 am
It would be interesting to find out how many people DON”T use their dominant eye at the viewfinder. I am right eye dominant but had used my left eye at the viewfinder for years until discovering the right eye thing recently. I have been trying to use my right eye since, but the comfort level just isn’t there for me. Guess I better take a few pictures with the right eye, then the left, and compare the results….
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:43 am
I use to shoot with my right eye all the time. And, then I found that when I would use my view-finder camera, which had the view-finder on the upper-left corner of the camera, all my photos were shifted to the right. When I started using my left eye, my photos were centered. After using my left eye for some time, it then felt natural. I’m right handed, but my left eye is the dominant eye. Go figure!
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:12 am
I’m right handed, but just found out recently that I am left-eye dominant. I also use my left eye to shoot. All very interesting.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:18 am
im a right handed person, but i shoot with my left eye since i saw this video from joe mcnally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsx3-FWfwk.
this technique help me a lot to hold the camera steadier. try it !!!!!!!!!
Regards,
Fernando.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:37 am
Maybe what you are seeing is that most peoples dominant eye is there right. The dominant eye has no relationship to your dominant hand
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:58 am
I shoot with my Right eye because I’m legally blind in my left eye. Always have been. BUT, that’s helped my photography do to never having good depth perception.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 am
I am right hand dominant, but am left eyed. Also left eared ! Cant use a phone with my right ear ! Go figure :) I hope camera manufactorers take us into account. My old Cosina was uncomfortable to use left eyed because of the where the film advance lever was located.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 am
I’ve always used my left eye, as it felt more natural even though my vision is actually impaired in that eye (although contact lenses correct this quite well). When I recently learned to shoot a gun I was using my right eye because that’s what I saw everyone else doing, and bullets were going all over the place…then the instructor taught me to use the gun sight to learn which eye was dominant (similar to Mantis’s ‘thumb test’ above) and I learned my left eye was my dominant eye and gave me far greater accuracy. If I’d learned to shoot a gun as young as I learned to shoot a camera, I probably would have just gone with what was ‘natural’ to me from the start :)
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:14 am
It would be interesting to see if shooting from different eyes produces different pictures if you know what I mean. I might have to try this over the weekend.
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I am left eyed and it sucks with my Canon 350D because my nose is forever hitting the little button and turning the timer on! Am trying to teach myself to use my right eye, but it is not easy.
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
i am ambi & use my left eye theres a great technique for left eyed shooters that enables me to get pictures in low light at long shutter speeds. I saw it on Joe McNallys website
http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/category/videos/
You stand with your left shoulder in front & jam the camera against the shoulder & your left hand grabs your right wrist, Works great it’s as if all my lens have VR :)
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I shoot with my left eye because I am left dominant everything except my hands where I’m ambidextrous but prefer my right hand for writing.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Most of my friends are using left eye when taken the shot even they are not left handed. I think is just a habit of their own. I am a right eye shooter, i found out by using right eye is more advantage than using left eye. When I start shooting, I put the view finder on my right eye, then I open both eyes, I use my left eye to located the shooting target. I found out that, by using this technique, i can located my target much more faster and accurate specially when i using my zoom lens. But i using the left eye on viewfinder, i cannot use my right eye to located the target and have to use the viewfinder, i quite difficult for my to find the target some time. Ya, if using the left eye, my nose always touch the screen on the back, the oily nose will always leave mark on the screen, is really annoying when i want to review back the photos. So, try out by using the right eye for shooting, sure you will feel the different. (for those left eye user).
just my point of view
October 4th, 2009 at 2:58 am
I shot with my left eye, I stand with my left side sideways looking at my subject I feel it gives me better balance, your body is not moving, if you shot with right eye you are up on your toes or back on you heals moving back and forth you don’t have very good balance.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
i use my left eye but i dont have prob useing left or right but i manly shoot with left eye. most of you sound like you are males sorry
October 13th, 2009 at 4:52 am
I’m a lefty and I use my left eye, but it’s not so much for the reason that I’m left handed as it is because I can’t close my left eye by itself. I suspect this is genetic, like the ability to curl your tongue. I am only able to use the right eye if I leave both eyes open. Also, as a lefty, I have no problem using the camera. Most equipment (of any kind) is right handed so I would bet most lefty’s are somewhat ambidextrous.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I’m right handed but can’t close my left eye while clicking…. I guess that forcibly closing my left eye is not a natural way of photography… Maybe I should try and practise clicking with my left eye as I’m able to close my right eye naturally. Please suggest.
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