How to take Macro Photos on your iPhone

After reading Macro Photography of Bugs and Butterflies by Katy Ramm, I thought I would try macro photography with my phone.

Supported models of the iPhone use an Ultra Wide camera to capture macro photography — producing stunning close-ups in sharp focus. But it's also possible to take macro photographs with phones that don't have an ultra-wide lens.

The supported cameras are:

• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max

Taking macro photos with supported models

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone, then select Photo mode.
2. Get close to the subject — as close as 2 centimetres. The camera will automatically switch to the Ultra Wide camera.
3. Tap the Shutter button to take a photo.

Taking macro photos with unsupported models

If, like me, your phone doesn’t have an Ultra Wide lens, there are other ways to take macro photographs.

Optical Zooming

If your iPhone has two lenses, it is likely that you have “Optical Zooming”. You can confirm this by opening the camera and checking whether it has a “0.5” and a“1x” button.

To take a macro photograph:

1. Move as close to the subject as possible without losing focus.

1. Press the “1x” button until the zoom dial appears.

1. Rotate the dial anticlockwise to increase the magnification.

2. Take a photograph.

If you don’t have optical zoom, you can either:

• Take a photo as close as possible without zooming (this works best in bright light — see the photograph at the beginning of this article), or
• use digital zooming.

Digital Zooming

With digital zooming, you focus on your subject and expand the picture using two fingers or a finger and a thumb.

This method has the disadvantage of reducing the definition of your photo.