Five tricks to make the camera work for you: keys tailored to your hand, exposure with no blown highlights and focus that doesn't miss. Each with its own exercise.
These Sony a6000 tricks don't appear in the quick manual that comes in the box, and they're what separates "using the camera" from "mastering it". Menu names are the ones in the camera's English menus; the order matters: trick 1 sets up the buttons that tricks 3, 4 and 5 rely on.
TRICK 01
Buttons tailored to you
The a6000 has seven reprogrammable buttons and a 12-slot Fn menu. Set up properly, you'll never dive into the menu mid-photo again.
Reassign C1, C2 and AEL 5 MIN · ONCE
Out of the box, C1 and C2 do things almost nobody uses. This combination gets the most out of the focus system (and lays the groundwork for tricks 3, 4 and 5).
Go to MENU → ⚙ 6 → Custom Key Settings and assign: C1 → Focus Magnifier · C2 → Eye AF · AEL → AF/MF Control Hold. Leave the center button on Standard (we'll use it in part II).
Now the quick menu: MENU → ⚙ 6 → Function Menu Set.. There are three settings that can't be reached from any other quick spot and deserve a fixed slot: Peaking Level, Zebra and SteadyShot. Replace the slots you never use.
Mission: reassign the three buttons and the Fn menu, and during one afternoon of shooting use each shortcut at least ten times, even when you don't need to. Muscle memory is trained by repetition.
Done when you change peaking, zebra or the focus mode without taking your eye off the viewfinder.
TRICK 02
Zebra: goodbye to blown-out skies
A blown white can't be recovered, not even with Darktable: there's no information there. Zebra warns you before you shoot, not after.
Stripes that save photos EXPOSURE · BORROWED FROM PRO VIDEO
It's a stripe pattern that appears over the areas of the image that reach the brightness level you set. An inheritance from the professional video world that works wonders in photography.
Turn it on at MENU → ⚙ 1 → Zebra. The two useful values: 100+ marks what will come out pure white with no detail (clouds, windows, shirts in the sun); 75 marks when fair skin is properly exposed in portraits.
The workflow with 100+: if you see stripes over something important, lower the exposure (compensation towards −) just until the stripes disappear. Not one step more: shadows can be lifted later in the develop; blown whites can't. In photos (unlike video) there's still a sliver of margin above 100, but don't play with fire.
Mission: on a day with white clouds, take the same photo three times: with stripes all over the sky, with the stripes just gone, and one notch below that. Compare the clouds zoomed in at home.
Done when the clouds in your landscape photos have texture instead of being white blobs.
TRICK 03
Peaking + magnifier: manual focus without fear
Focusing by hand on a small screen used to be a lottery. With these two helpers on, it's easier than on the old SLRs.
The sharpness highlighter MANUAL FOCUS · MACRO
Peaking paints in color the edges that are in focus at that instant. The magnifier (MF Assist) automatically enlarges the image when you turn the ring. Together they're unbeatable.
Set it up once: MENU → ⚙ 2 → Peaking Level → Mid and Peaking Color → Yellow (visible in almost any scene; switch to red if the subject is yellow). In ⚙ 1 check that MF Assist is ON.
In focus mode MF, turn the lens ring: the image enlarges by itself so you can fine-tune. The center button toggles between ×5.9 and ×11.7. With old adapted lenses the loupe won't kick in on its own: that's why we assigned Focus Magnifier to C1 in trick 1.
Mission: set the lens to its minimum distance, focus by hand on a flower or the corner of a book using only peaking, then repeat with the magnifier. Time which one is faster for you.
Done when you can tell at a glance which plane of the scene is sharp without having to shoot and check.
TRICK 04
Eye-AF: the button that nails the eyes
In a portrait, if the eyes aren't sharp, there's no photo. The a6000 knows how to find them by itself — but only if you ask with a button that isn't assigned from the factory.
Eye focus with C2 PORTRAITS · KIDS
With wide apertures and long zoom, the sharp zone is only a few centimetres deep: focusing "on the face" can leave the eyes out. Eye-AF looks for the eye, not the nose.
With Eye AF already on C2 (trick 1), the move is: frame, hold C2 down — you'll see the frame jump to the eye — and without letting go, shoot. It's not a switch: it only works while you hold it.
Requirement: face detection on — Fn → Smile/Face Detect. → ON (it ships that way). The face has to be reasonably large, facing the camera and without sunglasses. Bonus: when it detects a face, the camera also adjusts the exposure for it, which saves a lot of backlit shots.
Mission: portrait in A mode, zoom at 50 mm, f/5.6, subject at an angle (not fully frontal). One photo focusing "normally" and another holding C2. Zoom into the eyes of both at home.
Done when the nearest eye in your portraits is always sharp, even if the nose or the ear isn't.
TRICK 05
DMF: autofocus with a fine touch
The fifth focus mode, the menu's great unknown: the camera focuses by itself and then hands you the ring for the final adjustment. The best of both worlds.
The AF focuses, you fine-tune CLOSE SUBJECTS · PRECISION
At short distances the AF gets it "almost" right: it nails a plane one centimetre away from the one you wanted. DMF (direct manual focus) lets you correct that centimetre without changing modes.
Turn it on at Fn → Focus Mode → DMF. The move: press the shutter halfway and the camera focuses as usual; without letting go, turn the lens ring to fine-tune. With trick 3's peaking active, you'll see in yellow exactly what you're moving.
A trick within the trick: at very short distances it's sometimes faster not to touch the ring and gently rock your body back and forth until the peaking lights up exactly what you want. Two details: the mode chosen from Fn is remembered when the camera powers off, and DMF only works with native E-mount lenses.
Mission: three objects in a row on a table (at 30, 40 and 50 cm). In DMF, let the AF focus on the first and, without releasing the shutter, move the focus to the second and third using only the ring.
Done when AF is no longer "hit or miss": it's a starting point that you finish off.
Want more? This is the first half. In Sony a6000 tricks (II) you'll find the five advanced ones: stretching the battery, ISO AUTO with limits, burst with tracking, sweep panoramas and sending photos to your phone. And if you haven't mastered the exposure triangle yet, the Full manual mode guide should come first.