More photographers use right eye than left when taking pictures

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More photographers use right eye than left when taking pictures

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | Guns, Photos |

That’s from an online survey by Digital Photography School. The results were 57% right eye and 37% right eye, with another 7% looking through the viewfinder with both eyes (I assume they meant sometimes one and sometimes the other, but see below).

I know from shooting a gun that I’m right eye dominant. I’m lucky in that I’m also right handed.

When your eye dominance and hand dominance are different you have cross eye dominance, which can create some problems when shooting. For instance, if you mount a rifle so that you can pull the trigger with your right hand you’ll have a hard time craning your neck over far enough to look through the sights with your left eye. If you put the rifle in the other hand you can look through the sights, but may have trouble working the bolt and other controls with your off hand, even if the rifle is set up for a left handed shooter.

Some cross dominance shooters get around that by learning to shoot with both eyes open. For pistol shooting the isosceles stance bypasses the problem by putting the gun in the centerline of the body. Other tricks here.

Here’s a simple test to determine if you are right or left eye dominant. Until I read Wikipedia I didn’t know what it was called.

The Porta test. The observer extends one arm, then with both eyes open aligns the thumb or index finger with a distant object. The observer then alternates closing the eyes or slowly draws the thumb/finger back to the head to determine which eye is viewing the object (i.e. the dominant eye)

Tags: guns and cameras

3 Comments to More photographers use right eye than left when taking pictures

Steve K.
September 30, 2009

I wonder what the breakdown of “turns clockwise” vs. “turns counter-clockwise” when taking a vertical picture is. I’m counter-clockwise, and Terri is clockwise.

Les Jones
September 30, 2009

Dang. I’m trying to think what I do. I think I’m counterclockwise. Clockwise feels cramped.

ExurbanKevin
October 1, 2009

I’m cross-eye dominant as well (right handed, left eyed), something I didn’t find out until I stop shooting pics fulltime and starting shooting guns as a hobby. I’ve always used my right eye to shoot. Shooting a lot of sports, I found it easier to track the action with me open left eye, and then focus and frame the show with my right eye.

I wonder if I would have done things differently had I known at the time I was using my “weak” eye to frame up the shot.