How To Determine Your Dominant Eye

Here's how to determine your dominant or 'master' eye. Using your dominant eye to judge the relative position of objects can help ensure an accurate drawing.

Difficulty: N/A
Time Required: 1 minute

Here's How:

• Choose two vertical edges or objects, one a few feet behind the other - looking through a doorframe to something on the wall behind is ideal.
• Stand about 10 feet away from the closest edge.
• Look carefully at the alignment of the edges or objects.
• Without moving, cover or close one eye and look at the objects with the other eye.
• Switch eyes, looking through the eye you had previously covered, and closing the other one.
• Look at the objects with both eyes again.
• You should now be able to identify which eye observed little or no real change, and which eye noticed a shift in the the objects. Repeat the previous steps if needed.
• The eye which observed a change in the objects is your non-dominant eye. The eye which observed the same view as with both eyes open is your dominant eye!

Tips:
The dominant eye is often, but not always, on the same side as the master hand.
You will usually unconsciously choose your dominant eye when peering through a telescope or camera viewfinder.
Eye dominance has been shown to have no effect on sporting performance, and articles to the contrary are based on 'urban myth'.