When I was shooting video a few days ago, a couple of questions were going through my head. One question was that of wondering if one should keep both eyes open when viewing through the view finder. If one is to keep both eyes open, the second question to arise was: which eye to use? Is there a difference? Ok, three questions.
A brief search indicates that, in the world of archery at least, there is indeed a dominant eye.
There is even a page for
determining your dominant eye:
- Extend both hands forward of your body and place the hands together making a small triangle (approximately 1/2 to 3/4 inch per side) between your thumbs and the first knuckle.
- With both eyes open, look through the triangle and center something such as a doorknob or the bullseye of a target in the triangle.
- Close your left eye. If the object remains in view, you are right eye dominant. If your hands appear to move off the object and move to the left, then you are left eye dominant.
- To validate the first test, look through the triangle and center the object again with both eyes open.
- Close your right eye. If the object remains in view, you are left eye dominant. If your hands appear to move off the object and move to the right, then you are right eye dominant.
- One more alternative method is to assume the same position with your hands forming the triangle around the object and have both eyes open. Now, slowly bring your hands toward your face while continuing to look at the object with both eyes open. When your hands touch your face, the triangle opening should be in front of your dominant eye.
I'm guessing that one uses their dominant eye when using the view finder. I havn't answered the question
about whether having both eyes open is good or not. Having at least one open seems like a good idea, though.