Keeping both eyes open

[Reflector]

I'm kind of having a tough time focusing when both my eyes are open. I'm seeing double image and can't concentrate on looking through the viewfinder. Is this normal and will take some practice to get it right?
Is there any tips to learn this and which eye should look through the viewfinder?
Will keep practicing meanwhile............

regards,
CJ

[ricktas]

dont use your 'other' eye to focus on the scene. Use the eye up to the viewfinder and focus with it. Having the other one open is fairly much so you can predict events. So say you are shooting a person running on a beach, past a particular rock. By having the other eye open you can see when they are approaching your scene, etc. Or perhaps you are shooting a seascape and want to get a wave coming in at just the right time. Look through the viewfinder, but use your other eye to 'monitor' the wave movement outside the viewfinder. The eye that is not looking through the viewfinder does not need to be tracking and focusing on your subject, even blurred, you can see the wave coming, or the person.

It is also good to get into the habit of doing as it lets you detect danger. You are shooting at night, and looking through the viewfinder, and someone comes up and grabs your camera and runs off with it. If you have your other eye open, you become aware of the person near you, sooner than you would if it was shut.

[sunny6teen]

everthing Rick just said....also...
being right eye dominant helps. hold your arm out with your index finger and thumb touching to make a 'circle'. look through the circle and line up a distant object so it's visible within the circle. close your left eye keeping the right eye open - and vice versa. your dominant eye is the open eye that kept the object in the circle.

If you're your left eye dominant - you won't be for long if you continue to hold the viewfinder up to your right eye. you'll find yourself with a glazed half open left eye in no time ;)
I'll bet that there's loads of people on this forum with a droopy left eyelid as a result of decades of shooting (myself included).
It's why I maintain that Paris Hilton, Forest Whittaker, Thom Yorke etc all must be amateur photographers :lol:

[KeeFy]

everthing Rick just said....also...
being right eye dominant helps. hold your arm out with your index finger and thumb touching to make a 'circle'. look through the circle and line up a distant object so it's visible within the circle. close your left eye keeping the right eye open - and vice versa. your dominant eye is the open eye that kept the object in the circle.

If you're your left eye dominant - you won't be for long if you continue to hold the viewfinder up to your right eye. you'll find yourself with a glazed half open left eye in no time ;)
I'll bet that there's loads of people on this forum with a droopy left eyelid as a result of decades of shooting (myself included).
It's why I maintain that Paris Hilton, Forest Whittaker, Thom Yorke etc all must be amateur photographers :lol:


I've always been puzzled with the dominant eye thing. In the army as we have to do target shooting with our riffles we were told to find our dominant eye with a similar method. We instead use both our hands and make a small triangle by touching the tips of our index and thumbs. Different method, same idea. Back to the point. My dominant eye changes from time to time every few days to weeks. When playing billiards competitively i constantly had to battle with this issue as well. :/ Still could never figure out why.

[Reflector]

My right is my dominant eye but I find that looking throught the viewfinder with my left eye works better when both eyes are opened. I guess my right hand is blocking my right eye from seeing the same object in the viewfinder which lets me focus better. Does it matter which eye I use to look through the viewfinder or I can use either one which is more comfortable? The main point is to have both eyes open for the reasons explained above and in the tutorial, right?

Thank you

regards,

CJ

[ricktas]

My right is my dominant eye but I find that looking throught the viewfinder with my left eye works better when both eyes are opened. I guess my right hand is blocking my right eye from seeing the same object in the viewfinder which lets me focus better. Does it matter which eye I use to look through the viewfinder or I can use either one which is more comfortable? The main point is to have both eyes open for the reasons explained above and in the tutorial, right?

Thank you

regards,

CJ

Just use whichever eye feels most comfortable for you.

[Reflector]

Thanks everyone for the advice....
I'll continue now with the learning plan.

regards,

CJ