I'm in Indianapolis today attending an Opensource Photo conference. Uber-amazing Indy photographer Jessica Strickland spoke at this morning's session about "car light" -- it was something that really struck me as brilliant in it's simplicity (yes, this happens to me regularly now that you mention it!).

Jess asked the attendees to think about how good they look when looking in car vanity or rear view mirrors...and then she pointed out that the magic of car light comes from being surrounded by indirect light of the car windows while the roof of the car acts as a natural gobo (or light blocker) of the harshness of direct light. I thought that was a great analogy to help photographers search for nice indirect light sources that flatter the subject without creating harsh shadows (or cause the subject to squint and create unflattering wrinkles).

Thanks for the great tip Jess! :)