Use A Droplet Of Water Instead Of A Macro Lens On Your iPhone Or iPad [iOS Tips]

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Detailed close-up taken with an iPhone. Courtesy of OS X Daily.
Detailed close-up taken with an iPhone. Courtesy of OS X Daily.

Your iPhone’s camera might be good enough to replace your old point-and-shoot — especially if you have the iPhone 4S — but it does have some flaws. For instance, it’s not great at taking those really close-up shots for catching the smallest details; it just doesn’t focus.

But with just a droplet of water, you can add a macro lens to your iPhone that allows you to capture  crystal clear high-resolution close-ups. Here’s how!

It’s really quite a simple trick, but it does take a bit of patience. What you need to do is apply a droplet of water to the camera lens on the back of your iPhone. I find the easiest way to do this is to dip a pen into a small bowl of water to catch a droplet, then applying it to the back of your iPhone.

If you can, try to cover the whole lens — this will give you the best results. Once you’re done, it’s time to turn your iPhone over carefully so that the droplet doesn’t fall off. But don’t do it too slowly, otherwise it’ll just run down your iPhone. This is the bit that takes patience.

Once you have your iPhone turned over with the water droplet still applied, you can try taking close-up shots of detailed objects. You’ll have to have a little play around with it to get the best results, but I found that holding my iPhone about an inch or two away from the object provided the sharpest image. You’ll also need to hold your device as steady as possible, otherwise the droplet shakes and your image becomes distorted.

When you get it right, it produces some really impressive results, and you’ll see it’s well worth the effort. Here are a few shots I took of a one dollar bill:

The shots obtained by OS X Daily (who have had much more practice than me) who we have to thank for this tip, are much better than mine. One of them is at the top of this post.

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