https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/317479917
I have a Canon PowerShot ELPH. On the right of the display, there’s a ring coyd around a FUNC SET button. On the left side of the coyd is an icon of a flower, on the right side a zigzag arrow, on the top a square divided into + and - diagonally, and on the bottom “DISP.”. I saw a bug on the other side of the window. I pushed the flower twice, which rikes it to macro “For shooting very close subjects”, and pushed the take-a-picture button. The result was a total blur of the bug, with the plants beyond in focus. How do I tell it to focus on the bug?
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By accident or not at all?
That may sound flippant, but it is unfortunately often true.
A lot of these cameras have a very limited macro mode, so honestly, might not be able to focus that close. If you don’t mind spending the money, this (https://www.amazon.com/Raynox-DCR-250-Super-Macro-Snap/dp/B000A1SZ2Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tXRExC25HqFdjuAPMdjYG4xs9i-DjDHoMe9KiBiwL9GguRQiFQA4m-RIRzJK2dzaOCCa86qYvzi6X1DZQD5pAGjjcc8qNmxn6mI5NjekMLoE5o90vrd6O-8ixB_JnpR6zxcLIVm566_4klfvF1RkeTnlR-IgRXWql7Uzb2_iHBHSekDBaOawBr51JTHo8NhpHtsVRhadz_w6xGht-El29A.4ryybdmEfeCAVTs0dOXz8dyPUx3AXHY-VVXe3dpUYho&dib_tag=se&qid=1759141473&sr=8-1&srs=36789743011) seems to work really well among macrophotographers
in the meantime, or if you don’t want a macro lense… i’ve found that just holding the camera at a bigger distance and zooming in often works better than the macro mode. it might take a few tries to get it to focus on the bug, but at least it will focus eventually. it doesn’t get you beautiful, detailed close-ups 
but the photo usually turns out somewhat recognisable (like here https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/313597308)
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Back off a bit, till the camera is happy to focus - then crop
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Canon PowerShot uses the guide beam to judge distance and optical AF to fine tune. Any concave surface, fuzzy pattern or unevenly hairy object will confuse both of these. That is sun orchids, butterflies and moths.
The trick is to shoot at an angle and offset, so that the guide beam hits a flat surface. You could practice with a small piece of rolled coduroy tacked to a wall or window.
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Cool! Never seen a bee chew a bubblegum before.
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Without manual focus (Which this series dosent have) focusing on small things will often be hard. As others have said moving back is usually the best bet. Thats what I had to do when I used bridge cameras, before finally going mirrorless.
You have 5x zoom. You might find that moving back, and then zooming in to max range, sometimes gives you the best shots on small thing. Again a trick I often used on my bridge camera.
Where and what is the guide beam?
Here’s a picture of the camera: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/304913499 . There’s a tiny hole around 45° up-left (as I look at the camera; in the picture it’s mirrored) from the lens, just above the moth’s wing tip. There’s also a circular transparent thing almost straight up from the lens, but it’s drowned out by the flash, which comes (I think) from an elongated transparent thing to the right of the circular thing.
All lenses have a minimum focus distance – if you are closer than this to your subject it won’t be able to focus.
There should be information about your camera online somewhere that indicates what the minimum focus distance is in macro mode. Or you can test this by picking a small fixed object at home and slowly moving the camera close until it is no longer able to focus on it.
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This attaches to a DSLR or mirrorless camera lens, it is not going to attach properly to a PowerShot ELPH
You can buy adapters to make it attach onto most Canon PowerShot cameras, but just realized this was a Canon ELPH series, which the lens mostly stays in the inside of the camera.
The guide beam is the circular transparent thing. When you half press the shutter, you can see the green light. The hole is the microphone.
You need to tilt the camera at the angle of the guide to the lens. You would be shooting from slightly above and keep the subject at the bottom of the frame.
Also move away and use the zoom, as others noted - try both macro and normal mode.
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Aside from being a tribute to my legendary powers of procrastination (it hasn’t been updated in years), this little sample gallery shows and summarizes my experience of getting to bug level macro with my old Powershot and the ‘secret’ extra: a Raynox clip-on macro lens. These little lenses (just slip into a back pocket) will get you there and you won’t look back! Check the online used spots first. I just found one in a thrift store the other day too ($30!).
They’re dead easy to use, but take a while to work out the focusing.
Yeah, that was the thing I linked, actually! Unfortunately, I don’t think the Canon Powershot ELPH series is compatible with these.
There is one non-technical trick that might help in special situations: try go get a boring background behind the bug, if possible. E.g. hold a sheet of white paper behind the spiderweb so the camera doesn’t find interesting tree bark or other plants to focus on beyond the spider.
On some cameras, you can half-press the shutter button which will lock the automatically acquired settings (brightness, distance etc.) until you fully press, maybe that works on your model (i.e. focus on the border of the window, half-press, the move sideways to your shield bug).
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