On the tech days of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Clearer photos

How to take great family photos this holiday season

In our experience, the best way to do this is to give those lenses a quick, circular wipe-down with a microfiber cloth. Don’t forget to give those front camera(s) a cleaning, too — it’ll give you sharper selfies.

If you wear glasses, you probably have one of these cloths already. They also frequently come with some phone accessories, like screen protectors.

You can also use premoistened lens wipes, which often come in packs of 50 or 100. Many of them are made of paper, so don’t feel the need to press too hard when you’re wiping — and stop once they start to (quickly) dry out.

In case you were wondering, no — traditional wet wipes aren’t a good substitute. They often contain moisturizers and other additives that can actually make your lenses even messier.

If you don’t have any of these things on-hand, don’t worry: A sleeve will do in a pinch (as long as you aren’t wearing anything coarse). This could take a bit longer, as dry fabric tends to push grease and schmutz around — if you’re really having trouble getting those lenses clean, exhaling on them before wiping them down usually helps.