Macro photo that I cannot repeat

Question

I have an iPhone SE 2 with pretty standard 12MP camera and as I was sitting on our porch and browsing the web I randomly enabled the main camera and took a shot of my sweatpants fabric (no joke here):

I was pretty impressed with the quality as I could see fibers etc.
Just 10 minutes later I attempted to take a few more shots at the same macro level. No matter how I tried I could not get even near if the shot above:
 
So I am puzzled as to what allowed my phone camera to take that perfect shot and then fail to capture it next time?
I was not using any special apps just standard photo app.
UPDATE:
I copied the EXIF data and I "think" there was in fact digital zoom used by the camera. But I am not sure auto focus is able to leverage that cause surely I was not using digital zoom myself:
https://exifinfo.org/detail/S0dqdJAlf1K72asyTCsCww

Saaru Lindestøkke · Accepted Answer

Assumptions
I think this is a combination of using digital zoom (or cropping) and flash.
I don't own an iPhone SE but a Samsung S8. On a high level they have comparable cameras though.
iPhone SE camera specs (it doesn't specify what wide is unfortunately):

12 MP, f/1.8 (wide), PDAF, OIS

Samsung S8 camera specs:

12 MP, f/1.7, 26mm (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS

Test photos
Below I took a photo of some fabric as close as the Samsung could (approx. 7 cm).
The left/first photo uses 8x digital zoom and flash, the right/second photo uses 4.5x digital zoom and no flash. To me the difference looks comparable to what you're seeing.
 
Answer
So to answer your question, if you want to achieve a photo similar to the one you show on the top:

Use flash
Use digital zoom
OR
Use no/little digital zoom and crop the photo afterwards

My guess is partially supported by the EXIF data of the photo posted by the question asker.
It states (among other things):

Digital Zoom Ratio
5.006622517

However, the same EXIF data also shows that no flash was used:

Flash
Off, Did not fire

planetmaker · Answer

You can convert your phone into a make-shift macro camera by applying a small drop in front of the lens. In humid conditions when water is condensing or during rain etc this might occur accidentially.
The drop size determines the extend of the macro effect (smaller drops mean smaller focal lense, thus stronger macro effect). There is a very brief description how to do that voluntarily here.

feklee · Answer

Try setting the camera to manual focus, then select the minimum focusing distance, and get as close as possible. Possibly combine that with the built-in digital zoom.

Macro photo that I cannot repeat

3 Answers

Assumptions

Test photos

Answer

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