5 tips for good macro photos with your smartphone
Sometimes you want to bring it all a little closer. Then you see how cool the eye of a fly looks, or the dots of a ladybug. You can use the macro mode of your phone for this. Not every phone has it, but many phones know what to do with it. We give you five tips to get the most out of it.
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Use water
Of course you know that those photos of that Coke bottle in the TV commercial were made with special sprays, but you can really achieve more with macro photography if you use water droplets. Whether you get up before dawn to photograph a beautiful flower outside or make a special image of an insect with a drop that you have deposited yourself: water drops immediately make a photo much more interesting to look at.
No water is involved here, but the texture of the flower makes it look like it.
Get uncomfortably close
Of course you have a macro mode on your smartphone, but that does not mean that you still have to photograph from quite a distance. Most phones will give you directions on how close to get, but you can get even closer for better results. Especially if you want to photograph the pistil of a flower, for example, with some flowers you really have to be almost IN the flower. Always be careful and treat the subject of your photo with care and respect.
Can we have a look inside?
Find beautiful textures
You sometimes have phone cases that feel like they’re really fine sandpaper: those textures are cool to shoot because macro magnifies it a lot and that looks really cool. Look for cool texture in everything you shoot. For example, maybe your cat’s pad under the paw is much more interesting than that fluffy fur. For macro photos you really have to learn to look at your subject differently and that is exactly what makes macro photography so much fun: it is a completely different dimension of photography.
Even the skin gets a special structure if you only shoot deep enough macro.
Choose your ‘object’ wisely
You can of course try to take a macro photo of a bee, but if it’s just flying busily from one flower to the next, it’s difficult to capture it properly in all its movement. Or your cat: if you want to photograph that nice triangular licorice nose, do it when the cat is sleeping instead of when it is running around like crazy. Macro shots aren’t about the action, it’s about sitting still, so keep an eye out for that. For example, if you want to photograph a flower outside, hold it gently by the stem so that the wind does not throw it in all directions. It is then up to you to be creative with hiding your hand.
Also be careful that he is not covered in pollen (although his bottom is droll).
Use an LED light
Depending on what you’re taking a picture of, you can often take a better picture if you shine an LED light. Flowers in particular often become much more colorful when you use such a light and especially because you have to sit very close to something with your lens, it sometimes gets even darker: an LED helps. Just make sure that you don’t get bothered by shadows in your photos. Sometimes shading can be cool, but most of the time it’s something that gets in the way rather than a nice photo that looks almost professional. And you can certainly achieve the latter with just your phone, a beautiful insect, crazy texture, striking flower or something else beautiful. Have fun!
Thanks to the light, the wings of the butterfly look even more beautiful.
More photography tips
Want more photography tips? This way you can shoot beautiful snapshots of the beach, or of your eye (iris photos). Do you prefer pictures of food, mountains on winter sports, the northern lights, a concert or flowers? That is also possible, unless you prefer to get tips about selfies of course.
Do you have any smart tips for taking beautiful macro photos? Leave them now in the comments.
