iPhone Macro: when less is more.

Alberta Jewel Spider photographed with my iPhone 15 Pro

I discovered that my 3x lens on my iPhone defaults to using the ultrawide lens (0.5x) for close-ups.  The problem with this is that the ultrawide does not have the resolution of the main camera (1x), and getting really close physically blocks light.  The solution requires a few steps.

The first step is to switch the camera to ProRAW & Resolution control (Settings > Camera > Formats) from the lower-resolution mode.  In your iPhone's Camera app, you can choose whether to use RAW or HEIF format.  I use RAW, but the HEIF format is also a good choice, especially if you can't deal with raw images.  Since I use Photoshop, it is not a problem for me.

Then you have to turn off the automatic switching between cameras when doing macros.  You can find the Macro Control slider under the Camera app in Settings (Settings > Camera, then scroll way down).  Turn it off (slide the "slider" control to the left so the colour switches from green to white).  If you don't want to do this, you can temporarily disable the feature by clicking the flower icon that appears on your screen when automatically switching to close-up mode.  See the image below.

Left:  macro mode automatically engages in the 1x, 2x, and 3x camera options.
Center:  You can turn the auto-macro function off temporarily by touching the macro icon.
Right:  When the 0.5x camera is picked, the macro mode sign does not come on.

So, here is the thing to keep in mind.  The image on the screen looks bigger when macro mode is engaged, but any actual photos you take will not be great.  By turning off the macro mode and using the 1x camera at 48 mp (HEIF or RAW), you won't get so close, but there will be an enormous amount of detail present (you can crop in the Photos app).  In the end, less is more.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com


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