How to Get the Most out of Apple's Macro Control | Tips, Lenses, Etc.

With the introduction of the iPhone 13 and its successors, Apple has introduced an innovative yet often underappreciated feature into the Pro series: Macro Control. This feature lets users use their camera to capture close-up images of detailed textures or subjects.

In earlier models, the ultra-wide lens could not focus effectively due to its fixed nature, which begged the upgrade of new hardware for the ultra-wide lens in new iPhone lineups to achieve precise focusing.

These enhancements have revolutionized the experience for mobile photographers. Before this development, taking close-up images with the iPhone's native camera was pretty challenging. In comparison, Samsung Galaxy phones could accommodate Macro functionality a year earlier, thanks to their minimum focus distance at an optical level.

Here's how to get the most out of this latest feature and when or why you should use it.

Why We Need to Adjust Settings for iPhone's Macro Control

The iPhone camera system is designed to detect proximity to a subject. Suppose it recognizes that the subject is closer than the minimum focus distance the primary camera lens allows. In that case, the system seamlessly transitions to the phone camera's-native macro lens, ensuring proper focus.

When utilizing an add-on Moment Lens, the built-in lenses are partially obscured, which can impede the iPhone's ability to gauge the distance to subjects accurately. That means the device may mistakenly assume that the user is approaching an object and attempt to switch to the macro lens unwarranted. Users gain manual control over this functionality by activating the macro toggle button.

Manage Automatic Macro Switching

You can decide when your camera switches to the Ultra Wide mode for macro photos and videos. Just follow these steps:

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone and move close to your subject.
2. When you're close enough for macro photography, you'll see an "Auto Macro On" button pop up on the screen.
3. Tap the "Auto Macro On" button if you want to stop the camera from automatically switching modes.
4. If your photo or video starts to blur, you can either move back slightly or tap the .5x button to switch manually to the Ultra Wide camera.
5. To reactivate automatic macro switching, just tap the "Auto Macro Off" button.
6. If you'd rather handle macro switching manually every time, go to Settings > Camera and turn off "Macro Control."
7. And if you want to keep your macro settings consistent between uses, navigate to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings and enable "Macro Control."

Using Our Moment Lenses

To be clear, you should always shoot in the Moment Pro Camera App while using Moment Lenses on your iPhone. Our app is specifically designed to work in tandem with our lenses and mediates any challenges the native camera app has with our hardware.

However, if you're shooting on an Android or don't want to download the app, the changes to the iPhone's hardware and software will affect how Moment lenses work. Thus, you have to adjust the macro control when using our lenses, otherwise they'll confuse the iPhone's camera.

Please refer to the section above if you haven't already for the proper settings.

Tips for Great Macro Photos & Video

A dedicated add-on lens, such as the Moment 10x Macro Lens, is awesome for achieving super-close, detailed magnification, better colors, and rich clarity that comes from real glass, not computer-generated A.I.

1. Use Lots Of Available Light

Just like other forms of photography and filmmaking, light is essential with macro shots. Because we are in the realm of the tiny, there are several ways to make that light shine right. You will probably be leaning over what you are taking a picture of, so ensure you are not blocking the light. Sometimes, this is very hard, and this is where a small pocket LED light can come in handy. You can position this light between you and your subject and have it brighten your shot. You can also play with the angles of light, creating different angles of shadows. This makes textures pop.

2. Use The Macro Hood

You might already know that our macro lens has a very shallow depth of field. Our lens hood will help you position your subject to get perfect focus. The focus is clear and sharp at the edge of the lens hood, so if you press it against your subject, get the guide right. There is somewhat of a wiggle room of a few millimeters where you can adjust focus to dial it perfectly.

3. Use Focus Peaking

In most professional camera apps, like the Moment Pro Camera App, you can enable focus peaking, which is an excellent guide to getting focus clear and sharp. It is a visualization of where the focus plane is. This will help you dial in focus just right.

4. Use a Steady Hand or Tripod

Because focusing can be challenging, you want to keep your phone steady. Small tripods like these can help keep everything in place and free up your hands to use a light or position your subject.

5. Share Your Work!

We all love macro photos, so please share them with us using the tags #shotonmoment and #momentmacro.