Flipping the “Macro Control” toggle in your camera settings will give you more control for close-up photography.
First, make sure your iPhone 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max is updated to at least iOS 15.2 (the regular iPhone 13 / 13 mini doesn’t support macro mode!)
From your “Settings,” scroll down until you find “Camera” and tap on it.
Scroll down to the very bottom of your camera settings menu to find a setting called “Macro Control” — toggle this on. If this feature is on the slider will be to the right and the fill color will be green.
Open your “Camera” app and get close to your subject to have Macro Mode kick in. You can get as close as 2cm, but your iPhone will make the switch to the ultrawide lens within a few inches of your subject most times. Now, when Macro Mode is enabled, you’ll see an orange flower icon in the lower corner of your viewfinder. Once that flower icon is visible, your iPhone won’t engage other cameras or reframe your shot (unless you completely change focus or move your camera around a lot). To turn off Macro Mode and switch back to the primary wide lends, simply tap the flower icon. The flower icon will lose its yellow color and there will be a strikethrough line. If you’re still within a macro distance, you can tap the icon again to reenable Macro Mode.
The “Macro Control” toggle enabled vs. disabled.
Here’s a short screen recording of the “Macro Control” toggle in action. Notice the flower icon in the lower corner of the screen and the lack of that constant reframing issue in the video above.
In this video, I bring the iPhone 13 Pro close enough to this camera for Macro Mode to kick in, frame and shoot a photo, then turn off Macro Mode.