Two-eyes focusing?

Naples

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Turkey's Yusuf Dikeç just won the Silver Medal at the Olympics in the 10-meter air pistol shooting event. He says, "I shoot with both eyes, most shooters do it with one. Shooting with two eyes - I believe that it’s better. I’ve done a lot of research on it." Might this translate to focusing with both eyes in photography? Has it ever been tried? Just wondering.
 

Chan Tran

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If you use the screen definitely I focus with both eyes but unless the screen is large or magnified greatly you can't focus with any accuracy with the screen. For camera like those medium format with waist level finder I would use both eyes. With the eye level viewfinder be it's a reflex finder or EVF how can you use both eyes?
 

cerber0s

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No, it does not translate to focusing with a camera. There are several issues but the main one is that you’re working with different fields of view, and one eye that is artificially out of focus. I focus a camera with one eye, but I shoot (pistol) with both eyes open.
 

Alan Edward Klein

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I'd ask what the Gold Medal winner does?
 

Nicholas Lindan

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Keeping both eyes open was a (somewhat) popular style when using a Leica M3; the finder was close to 1:1 and the RF spot could be seen with just the one eye. As focal length shifted from 50mm to 135mm only the frame lines changed and the VF stayed at 1:1.

I can't see (groan) using the technique with an SLR as it takes a bit of concentration to see the GG for focusing. Maybe with an AF camera - though only one focal length would work.

Another problem with using both eyes is seeing in 3-D and misjudging a scene. I evaluate a scene first by closing one eye to get some idea of what the end photo would look like. When viewed in 2-D many scenes lose their appeal.
 

Chan Tran

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Chan Tran

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But then how many are actually focusing visually that is judging the sharpness of the image that we see in the viewfinder to focus. I do but I found very few people actually do. They either use focusing aid for SLR like split image and microprism or with the mirrorless digital they use focus peaking etc.. or they use AF.
 

Sirius Glass

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It works for him! That is great! But I only use one eye for 35mm and 120.
 

Saganich

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Steroscopic rangefinder...when my right eye was working I could do that on an M3.
 

Doremus Scudder

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Skeet and trap shooters aim with both eyes open. The only difficulty is for some right-handers that are left-eye dominant. They usually have to close their dominant eye or learn to shoot left-handed. The dominant right eye over the barrel when shooting right-handed does the aiming, but having both eyes open helps the shooter lead the target.

Best,

Doremus
 

MattKing

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Last time I checked, their are very few cameras where you need to factor in "recoil" when you "shoot" with them.
It seems to me that target shooting and photographing involve very different types of "looking".
For photography, I would expect to gain more useful information from the target shooter's approach to state of mind, balance, stance, breathing, concentration, holding the pistol, etc., etc.
I actually recommend an approach (attributed to firearm shooters) that I learned many years ago about how to order one's breathing while releasing the shutter, in order to minimize the affects of camera movement.
 

Wolfram Malukker

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It is nothing to do with recoil, and everything to do with how we process vision. I can only see focusing with both eyes being an advantage in camera shooting when taking photos of moving subjects, and there are plenty of other issues to solve first.
 

eli griggs

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I learned to use both eyes when shooting, as my dominant eye is the left, and to actually 'See' a target, you need that stereo vision.

In the Army, 14 BC, I shot .45 ACP for my Battalion pistol team, two years running but was sent to Eniwetok Atoll just before the second year's tournament was run.

However, using both eyes, allowed me to accurately hit the "X" in close groups, I don't believe I could have made with one eye shut.

You have to actually have the ability to focus you eyes AND mind onto your point of interest and this definitely includes your photographic shooting, darts, etc.

This duel eye approach was useful for Barnack and M rangefinders, and other cameras, because for me, it's a faster focusing aid, instead of using only one eye to isolate and focus within a small aperture.

Seeing the whole scene, through both eves, will allow you to immediately recognize an out of focused lens condition and quickly bring the camera's lens into focus by way of the natural instinct of balancing your perception, a near spontaneous reflex.
IMO.
 
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lecarp

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Have you used a S2a? lol.
 

lecarp

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Often use both eyes, it's a big ground glass and there is a lot to look at.
 

eli griggs

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lecarp said:
Have you used a S2a? lol.
Click to expand...


It's ALL about "SEEING", a mental discipline which most folks have a hard time with and after childhood, rarely, if ever, use because they've allowed the analytical side of the brain to take over sight and visual interpretation which, instead of "seeing" what is before you, uses a visual "shorthand.

This is well illustrated in the arts books of Betty Wright, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".

In that book, the "blind contour" exercise is very easy to use as a threshold to keeping the left side of your brain quite, which uses a mental shorthand of 'icons' letting the right side to really "see" what the screen, close up or at a distant, and those who need to see, recognize and record whatever is actually in focus, or target, as it exists.

I learned years before reading this book, how to "see" but the knowing of what the mental process is about and how to call it up, as needed has allowed me improve my disciplines, which is very gratifying.

Seeing with the right side, photographically, improves compensation of your subject and environment and that's a real boon to the photographer and the resulting photographs.

I recommend people read this book, at least to the point of doing the blind contours and beyond the exercises if they want to learn more, but I believe being able to turn on the right side of the brain, at will, is key to many disciples, including shooting and photography.

Cheers
 
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