12 Tips for Better Macro Photography on Your Phone

When we observe the world from the macro perspective, there's a lot more to see. Macro lenses can be expensive, but there are lens attachments for smartphones that can help create the perfect macro photo for a fraction of the price. The best part? No matter where you go, you always have your camera with you! Let the world inspire you.

With attachments from olloclip and Photojojo, iPhone and Android users have captured some pretty amazing stuff. Read on to see their amazing photos and get some tips for upping your macro phone photography game.

Choose Your Subject Wisely

To take a macro photo on your phone, you have to be relatively close to your subject, slowly moving the lens in to focus in on the detail you want to capture. To avoid blur, for example, you might want to choose a sleepy cat instead of an adventuresome one.

Record Video If You Have To

This photo is a still from a high-speed video the photographer took – and that's totally okay. Macro lenses can detect even the tiniest movement and pressing the button to take the photo can cause blur. So photographer Amber Thornton set her iPhone 6 setting to record slow-motion video and took a sharp, colorful still from the video.

Get Close, Really Close

Dig into nature! Now's your chance to explore parts of plants that you never knew existed. Believe it or not, that's a dandelion in the photo above! Photographer Jeff Turner must have stuck his phone right in the middle of that flower to capture such a detailed shot.

Take Another Look at Trinkets

If you have kids or like to collect things, toys and trinkets make a great subject for the macro experimenter. Whether you're making a two-inch dinosaur look humongous or taking a detailed portrait of a figurine, let macro photography inspire your imagination.

Get Creative With Water

Water droplets look like fine jewels in macro photographs like the one above – they decorate everything they touch. The trick with water droplet photography is to get close without getting your lens wet!

Look for the Tiny Details

Pieces of jewelry, embroidered fabric, scribbled handwriting — macro photos make the little details stand out. Once you've started using a macro lens, it's hard to let things be. Let your curiosity lead the way.

Don't Be Afraid to Get 'Far Out'

Photographer Jeremy Atkinson snapped this photo of pixie cup lichen and, with a bit of editing, turned it into a piece of surreal art. That's what's so fascinating about macro photography: at first glance, viewers aren't always sure what they're looking at, and photographers can have a lot of fun taking advantage of that.

Discover Hidden Things

Exploring with a macro lens motivates you to pay much more attention to nature. A Japanese tree frog hides in a pink flower in this incredible photo by iPhone photographer Norio Nomura. What a fantastic find!

Keep an Eye Out for Textures

Getting an up-close view can reveal a whole new perspective.

See Through the Eyes of an Insect

Mosey through flower petals and see life as a bee does. Photographer Jeff Turner even managed to get the detailed pollen particles in this flower!

Search for Patterns

Spirals, stripes, spots and more – the world around us has an abundance of patterns, and sometimes they aren't apparent until you look more closely.

Get Out and Explore

Most of all, let yourself look at life through a magnifying glass. Go outside and find things to learn about, whether it's a tiny insect or a grain of sand.