I have a divergent strabismus, more precisely I have Brown’s syndrome since I’m a kid. I have been told several times that nothing can be done about it. And even if I could change it, I probably wouldn’t because I have learned to use my eyes in my own ways. With time I realized these ways I see are unusual for many people, and it’s actually been quite fun trying to explain to them how I use my eyes. This post aims to do so in written form.

I suffer from myopia and slight astigmatism, I wear glasses that correct me well for that. This post won’t tackle this aspect, except by noting the fact that my left eye has an worse uncorrected vision than my right, so my correction is more intense on the left.

Because of my strabismus, I don’t have binocular vision, I don’t perceive any depth. This can reveal to be tricky in some life situations, but it doesn’t bother me that much. As all people without binocular vision (or anyone who would just close one eye), I naturally developed a sense of depth from seeing the environment in “2D”. In fact, it bothered me the most when playing sports at school, notably table-tennis and badminton. I don’t take any pleasure playing any racket or ball sport, but that’s okay.

So I never see with both eyes at the same time, my brain never does the job of using the two images from my eyes to create a unique 3D one. I always see and focus with one main eye, and the image from the other just stays on the side, in a blur, and adds to my peripheral vision. But this situation actually comes with a perk: I can choose which eye to use.

Indeed, for as long as I know, I have been able to consciously choose which eye is my main one, at any time. I quickly realized that I automatically choose the left or right for different situations, because they see differently. Just like our two ears hear slightly differently, our two eyes see slightly differently too. With time I found some interesting features for each eye, and now sometimes choose deliberately to switch depending on the situation. Let’s break it down.

I use my right eye most of the time, it is the default choice for many situations. In fact, for a long time, I’ve only used my left eye to focus on things that are far on my left, or when the sight of my right eye is blocked, or to read. I always use my left eye to see something close to me like a book, notably because using my right eye requires adjusting, which can hurt me. This difference goes further.

I realized that the image from my left eye is “wider”, while the image from my right eye is more “zoomed”, with a smaller field of view. This effect is more prominent when I wear glasses because of the stronger correction on the left, though I can still perceive it without glasses. It’s subtle, but enough to make me feel like I see the “broader picture” every time I consciously switch to my left eye. So my wide left image is good to read, while my zoomed right image is ideal for looking further.

However, I also noticed a difference in resolution: my left eye seems to be more sharp. This may just be due to the fact that I use it less (my default main eye is the right one), so it rests more, and thus sees better. Still, I sometimes switch to my left eye to bring me another “sharper” (and also “wider”) perspective when looking far away, which is very useful.

The last difference I am aware of is in color perception, which is quite interesting. With my right eye (the one I use the most), colors are darker and a bit more vivid, while they definitely seem brighter with my left eye. My right eye, with its lower resolution and warmer colors, is like a vintage analog camera. While my left eye, with its sharp image and bright colors behaves more like a modern digital device, closer to the truth but less stylistic. I appreciate this difference in perception and take regularly advantage of it: when looking at a picture, a painting or a scenery, I can assess it in two different ways. When watching a movie, I sometimes deliberately switch to my other “color filter” when I find it more suited to the artistic visual tone of the picture.

This image gives an idea of how my two eyes see the same scene.

Sometimes I wish I had binocular vision to be able to perceive depth, but I have no idea what I’m missing. And in return I have two eyes which I use as two different ways to see the world, and I find it pretty cool.