My toughest desicion

[Fotomiguel]

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My M9 camera is a dream. I've been using the M8 for the last three years and now the M9 for a couple of months. I'm happy with the M8 and I'm happier with the M9 but I'm not happy with myself. The M9 is a camera that offers the possibility of improving as photographer and I think that the limits are not in the camera but in me The small details of using the camera sometimes make the difference. The rangefinder camera has been designed to use the right eye when shooting horizontal. The camera places itself in a natural way making a really stable shooting position. One can shoot using very low speed without shaking and be sure of the final result and that is so important. On the other hand, for vertical shots the left eye works much better.

Until a couple of days I've been left eye shooter. I couldn't even blink the left eye. From now on I'm a right eye shooter. I feel like a child learning the first steps. I prepare the shot very slowly and I'm failing some of them. The first day I almost quit but now I'm feeling a bit more hopeful. I'm really impressed how much I'm improving in low light. I have a long way til I get all this automatic and natural. I'm keeping the left eye for vertical shots which make really a stable position.

No more greasy nose marks in the lcd. For those who use the left eye for horizontal shots may be this modified spirit level could be helpful. It made release the pressure from the nose by transferring it to the forehead which is much more stable. With this small trick I could improve my shots in low light almost the same as using the right eye.

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I use glasses but if you don't, may be is a bit long for you. Any way may be the left eye was just a problem for me.

Cheers

[Guest ccmsosse]

My toughest desicion

 

Interesting point about shooting with the M9 - but why the title "..My toughest desicion.."

[geesbert]

being left or right eyed isn't only about which eye can be shut on its own, but also about the way the brain uses the information from both eyes open. a small test:

 

look at something small a few meters away with both eyes open. point your index finger at it in the view axis, keep the finger steady and now look with one eye each only. your dominant eye will be on target, the other one quite off. usually that is the one eye people instinctly use for photography

[Ro1and]

being left or right eyed isn't only about which eye can be shut on its own, but also about the way the brain uses the information from both eyes open. a small test:

 

look at something small a few meters away with both eyes open. point your index finger at it in the view axis, keep the finger steady and now look with one eye each only. your dominant eye will be on target, the other one quite off. usually that is the one eye people instinctly use for photography

 

Wow, I often wondered why I had so much trouble using my right eye. When I did your simple test my right eye was way off.

 

Thanks

Roland

[cheewai_m6]

i think there's something wrong with me. both my eyes are off, but equally. i use my right eye to shoot with though, and is more natural for looking through viewfinder.

[Guest WPalank]

Wow, I often wondered why I had so much trouble using my right eye. When I did your simple test my right eye was way off.

 

Thanks

Roland

 

Back to Solms....

[k-hawinkler]

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Back to Solms....

 

Ha ha, that's funny - although in this simple test my right eye is way off as well.

Now I wonder whether lasik surgery is an option...

[Jeff S]

Not sure what your tough decision is, Miguel.

 

I thought your photos were nice as is...and it's all about that (and the print). So whatever method works for you, and is comfortable for you, is right (or left:))

 

I'm naturally right-eyed and, FWIW, I find that shooting vertically with my right eye (turning camera down, not up) provides the most stable position, braced on my forehead...with no nose prints.

 

Jeff

[ho_co]

Miguel, I've also found your photography very rewarding, and I wonder why you feel switching eyes would improve it.

 

I'm left-eyed and wear glasses, and no one has ever said I'd be a better photographer if I used my right eye. (Maybe they feel nothing would help. )

 

I do believe making a change can make us see better. Maybe deciding to use only one lens for a given period of time, or shooting only in black-and-white, or only indoors, or only in places where I feel uncomfortable, etc, just to change the automatic fall-backs we have.

 

Changing eyes may also be a good change to put oneself through.

 

 

Wow! I am relieved. I was afraid you were going to say you were giving up the M9 and pursuing a career in rugby.

 

Good luck in your decision!

[diogenis]

Fotomiguel, you should use your seeing eye when you compose.

Run the test to find out which of the two eyes is the dominant one and use that one instead. You don't want yet another burden when you compose your photo. And sometimes some lucky ones can use both eyes, but this is rare. Learning to see with the wrong eye is difficult as learning to right with the other hand is

[sanyasi]

Back to Solms....

 

William:

 

My wife and I are headed to India this year. We loved your photos, particularly the M8 one--although the Canon were nothing to sneeze at. We are curious, any tips that you would like to offer on shooting or photography in India would be appreciated. Looked very dusty, was that a problem? Any photo etiquette issues unique to India? One of your photos seemed to be in a Mosque? We have stayed away from such photos in the past.

 

If you would like to start a different thread, we would love to see the forum do country specific threads of this nature. Would be a great resource.

 

Thanks

 

Jack Siegel

[Fotomiguel]

Interesting point about shooting with the M9 - but why the title "..My toughest desicion.."

Because I have to learn from the begining and it's really hard and difficult.

[Fotomiguel]

Why I'm doing this? To improve. Sometimes when low light I had to use the leica table tripod with its ballhead over my chest. My small spirit level trick was as well a great help. My renew right eye is making low light shots really easy and I'm getting used and improving everyday. The new position is very confortable. I think that the whole process can last for a couple of months or may be more but my brain and my right eye are now working together.

In the manual of the M9 you can see how is the right camera position and I think they use different eyes in vertical or horizontal shooting. So is posible use both eyes. I have just to get used. It's very curious how the vision of my right eye is getting better and clear. I think my brain had forgotten to see through this eye.

 

 

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[gwelland]

When I shoot in portrait mode on a tripod I find the Leica angle finder very helpful. It gives you a much more open angle to position your head and to look through the viewfinder. I shoot right eyed so the camera on a tripod will be tilted to the right of the tripod head.

[Guest]

Whatever works best for you, Miguel!

It would be interesting if you post on this thread again once per quarter and then once per year for us to see your progress with this.

It's not easy to think of someone switching hands for using a certain tool (in a better way your pictures so far are great). Wasn't there a tennis player who shot the back-hands with the left only? Did he introduce this in mid-career?

You're in a class of your own (congrat!) as an amateur and everything goes. In the age of the internet it could be feasible to find out, if competitive or even olympic marksmen kept their score after an eye injury continuing with the other eye.

 

HCB drank as few coffees as possible to get his human IS

It's that you look for a solution (of a non-problem in my opinion, I wish I had your talent and time) by challenging oneself and not by going to a store to obtain it from others. It's so much easier (and cheaper) to ask for a M10 with higher ISO asap. Well, I do this - for not upgrading from M8 to M9

[andybarton]

In the manual of the M9 you can see how is the right camera position and I think they use different eyes in vertical or horizontal shooting. So is posible use both eyes. I have just to get used. It's very curious how the vision of my right eye is getting better and clear. I think my brain had forgotten to see through this eye.

 

]

 

There is no correct position or eye. Whatever suits the individual is the correct way.

[wooferdog]

look at something small a few meters away with both eyes open. point your index finger at it in the view axis, keep the finger steady and now look with one eye each only. your dominant eye will be on target, the other one quite off. usually that is the one eye people instinctly use for photography

 

 

Oh No !!!!

 

I've recently changed to focus with my LEFT eye because my optometrist told me my LEFT eye was clearly my strongest eye (as far as vision was concerned)

 

I've just done your test ... and my RIGHT eye seems dominant ?

 

What now .. is it a case of accuracy v's clarity.

[rob_w]

Very interesting thread. I have wondered a few times whether it matters which eye is used:

• is it the dominant eye?
  
• Is it the right eye because that is encouraged by the camera design?
  
• is it determined by right/left brain dominance?
  
• is it determined by right/left brain creativity -- i.e. the right brain is more 'creative' than the left, which implies using the left eye?
  
• is it determined by which eye you can keep closed, if you can only close one eye?
  
• is it none of the above, because people have been taking good photos for a 100 years with either eye?
  

Okay, end of multiple choice questions (and sorry ). What I wonder is if there has been any serious research in the field of perception which would provide objective answers. We have lots of different personal experiences but I have never seen a more systematic approach to the question. Does anyone know of one?

 

Cheers

 

Robert

[Fotomiguel]

I just use the viewfinder to focus. I look for pictures with both eyes with no camera and when I see the picture I have to be quick. The frame is already in my brain. So If my right eye is good enough to focus and get used to do it quickly, I will get a much more stable position and I will be able to shoot under lower light conditions improving my photography. I've already done it but I'm not quick enough. Everyday I'm doing some focus exercises to be as quick as I was with the left eye. Every day I'm doing it better and quicker. I was not happy at all with my performance when low light. We look for better cameras with incredible iso but I think that to improve our tecnique and our limits is one of the most beautiful parts of photography.

 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[GMB]

There is no correct position or eye. Whatever suits the individual is the correct way.

 

Agreed. I was a left eye shooter for as long as I can remember and my left eye is dominant. Howerver, it is also weaker and needs a stronger correction.

 

Anyway, I decide to shoot with the right eye because as a left eye shooter with a digital camera you have this terrible nose grease on the screen. Took some time to get used to, but now is natural to the extent that I uncounciously switch between left and right eye. I do not think one position is more stable than the other.

 

Main difference is that I apparently make a funny face when closing the left eye, which means that shooting right eye gurantees harsh citique from my three teenage daughters