Alessio La Ruffa shot to Insta-fame, armed with just his iPhone. His social media photography accounts have close to 30,000 followers. He previously told Bored Panda that his journey to becoming a professional photographer began on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, where he’d meet up with like-minded creatives. They’d walk around taking photos of anything and everything. The group soon became well-known, and many, including La Ruffa, have racked up some big-name clients. You can check out some of his architecture photography here.

While La Ruffa now uses his professional camera kit for most of his architecture and street photography work, he’s still considered somewhat of a genius iPhoneographer (someone who takes epic pics with their iPhone). We reached out to him for some advice on filming or taking photographs with a mobile phone. And he was more than happy to answer our questions.

We began by asking La Ruffa what to keep in mind when taking a quick snapshot of something. "Firstly, don't shoot directly into sunlight or any light source," he told us, adding that you should try to ensure your subject is lit from the side. "This creates more shadows and makes the photo a bit more interesting," explained the photographer.

La Ruffa then went into a bit more technical detail. Photography, by definition, is all about light, and it can be tricky to get your image just right. "If there is a section or part of your photo that is slightly overexposed, you can reduce the exposure by tapping on the overexposed area and dragging the exposure slider down," he explained, saying that this works for iPhones.

If you have a different phone, do some research on how to adjust exposure. "Many phones allow you to adjust exposure by dragging your finger up or down after focusing," he says.

Framing and composition are also super important. After all, if you cut out a crucial piece of info in your pic, people might not believe it was there to begin with... "Have your grid turned on in your camera settings," advises La Ruffa. "Then, instead of having your subject in the middle of the frame, have your subject aligned to one of the grid lines or where the grid lines intersect. This is known as the rule of thirds."

He also suggests taking photos with your camera held upright to ensure the lines are straight rather than leaning back. "Don't use the digital zoom!" cautioned the expert. "Take a few steps forward to get closer."

To really take your photography to the next level, you should think outside of the box. "Use different angles," advises La Ruffa. "We are very used to seeing things from normal eye level or eye height, so try to shoot from different angles. Shoot lower or higher for something interesting." He also told us that mastering how to use light and shadows will make your photos much more interesting.

"Learn how to edit your photos," adds the expert. "Snapseed is a great free app on iOS and Android."

Nowadays, it's easy to fake photos... You can use programs like Photoshop to manipulate a picture or even create a whole image with artificial intelligence.

La Ruffa tells us that one of the quickest ways to tell if an image is AI-generated is by looking at the hands and fingers. They often look a little strange, he says. "They usually have the wrong number of fingers. Also, facial features may seem a bit off," he added. "If there's text in the image, AI-generated text often appears nonsensical and looks like symbols rather than actual letters."

The expert acknowledges that AI is "creeping into our lives in all sorts of ways!" He says another sign that an image has been manipulated is that the lighting and shadows appear inconsistent compared to the rest of the picture. "The textures often look a bit weird, almost plastic," La Ruffa elaborated.

But real photographs don't lie. You can get quite a bit of info from photo metadata, says La Ruffa.

"By quickly taking a look at one of my phone photos, I can see what camera I used, what lens, how many megapixels, the image size (in pixels and megabytes), the camera settings (ISO, focal length, exposure compensation, aperture and shutter speed), and the location where it was shot," he told us, adding that if you look at an image on a computer, you can also see if the image was edited and what software was used to edit it.

We were curious to know a bit more about manipulating photos. Like how easy is it to place myself in front of the Eiffel Tower? Or to add someone else to my selfie? La Ruffa says he works in Photoshop quite a bit on a daily basis, so he's able to quickly and easily manipulate a photo in post-production if he needs to. And he says that this skill is useful when it comes to removing items.

"Photoshop has a new generative AI tool that can help you remove or add elements to images," he tells us. "It's not 100% realistic, but I'm sure there are other tools that can provide a more realistic outcome."

Sometimes, when we are taking a quick snap as evidence of something, the action happens fast. Blink and you miss it. We asked La Ruffa how best to capture the drama. "If it's something spontaneous, then I would say try to move your camera to follow the action," he advised.

"For example, if you're shooting a car while following it, the car will be in focus, and the background will be blurred, which helps convey motion. If it's interesting, go for the shot. The motion blur adds movement to the photo!"

He added that if you are prepared in advance and know you will be taking photos of something moving, you should consider getting what's known as a third-party camera app. "This type of app typically allows for manual control of your camera, enabling you to choose to slow down your shutter speed significantly or speed it up so you can achieve sharp images," he explained.

So, does La Ruffa have any of his own weird "Pics Or It Didn't Happen" moments? Nothing crazy or strange, he reveals, before saying, "The most interesting thing I've witnessed was walking with cheetahs at sunrise on safari in South Africa. They were purring just like regular cats!"