When you stare someone in the face... where exactly are you staring?

I have a tendency to go straight for the right eye, then I just look all around and back to the eyes.

When I was younger and less confident, I’d look all around the face, only glancing at the eyes. Now I find the eyes are the most interesting part to look at when talking to someone. Unless I can’t stand them.

In all those pics linked in the details, I looked at the eyes first except for Tom Cruise. For some reason I was staring at his nose. And I don’t like Tom Cruise really.

Their breasts, I mean eyes.

I don’t know what this says about me but I started at the eyes and went to he mouth. I also tend to watch the mouth as the person is talking. It helps me understand what they are saying.

Right into their eyes, especially if it’s a fit woman….kerching!!
This is what annoys me with some actors, when there’s a scene in close up where both characters share intense dialogue. The bad method has them darting between each eye looking slightly demented.
Michael Caine gave an acting masterclass in which he covered this & the correct technique is to stare at the eye farthest from the camera lens. Works so much better, in cinematic terms anyway.

I found myself focusing immediately on the left eye with these photos. I don’t think it was for any particular reason, just that for the position I’m sitting, it was easiest. Otherwise, I’ve never put much thought into it. Most conversations I have don’t compel me to look somebody directly in the face.

@Blackberry Are you talking about the models right eye… or their left eye which is on the right of screen?

@ddude1116 Are you talking about the models left eye… or their right eye which is on the left of screen?

@cockswain I did the same thing with Cruise. Kept falling to his nose. I don’t like him either.

@worriedguy I didn’t look at the mouth of anyone except Jolie. Once I saw it, nothing else could hold my attention. The other woman portrait kept me at her eyes. And the B&W man covering mouth with shroud pushed me back up to the eyes and then to center of forehead.

@ucme Very interesting about Michael Caine seminar.

Thanks for keeping us abreast of your perversions, I mean inclinations @ragingloli.

I always look a person in the eyes. They’re the first thing I notice when I look at someone.

I’ve never thought of what I do in conversation (next time I’m in one I’ll try to remember to check). In these photos I always ended up looking at the models left eye (on the right of the screen). Except for the one of Angelina Jolie, I was somewhat distracted by her lips…

Oh, the models right eye.

I tend to look at the speaker’s mouth. As @worriedguy says, it helps me understand what they are saying. I may go back to the eyes, but I often look elsewhere when I’m speaking in reply. I could get distracted from my thought if I look right in the other’s eyes.
I tell kids who are hyper-active and have trouble paying attention in class to look at the teacher’s left ear. It looks like the student is looking at the teacher. He won’t pay any better attention than he did before, but the teacher won’t yell at him for not paying attention.

First I look at the eyes & then the over-all demeanor of the face (so I can determine sincerity or boredom or deception, etc.) & then the body language for clarification.

I always seem to focus on the right eye for some reason, even in those portraits. Answering your question here though aren’t the eyes the windows to one’s soul? There’s my answer.

OK I’m confused… are some of you capable of looking at both eyes at the same time?

When some of you say “I look at the eyes”… can you focus on both at the same time?

I can’t do that. I can see both eyes… and the entire face… but my vision is always a spot that’s forced to move around. The closest I can get to looking at both eyes is to focus my vision spot in the center of them above the bridge of the nose.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Wow…I completely overlooked that. It would be the right eye of the model, on my left as I see it, so the latter of those two.

Check out my other vision question here.

I know it’s polite to look them in the eyes. Of course, I can’t look at both, so I alternate. That usually works best for me.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Sorry, I left that bit out :-/
Like you, I tend to look in between the eyes, upper nose.

Depends on the distance between me and the person I’m looking at- generally if we’re at a 3 to 4 foot distance, I’d look at both eyes. If I got closer up, that’d mean there was a level of comfort between us, so I’d switch from one eye to the other because looking at someone’s forehead just feels too impersonal for that level of intimacy.

However… yesterday, a cashier at WalMart got within 10 inches of my face to talk to me and all I could fixate on was the erratic, long black whiskers dotting her upper lip. Eyes weren’t an option.

I bet she gets a lot of that.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies One or other eye. I will then tend to fix on one, depending on the situation.

Nice to see your face dude. Especially those eyes. Took a while for you to give in and show yourself (unless that’s your uncle or some random!) ;-)