“Any light figure or rounded object will appear to have a dark line around it when bright sunlight is hitting it squarely. In this case the model was lying on a steep sand bank and my camera was set up on a parallel bank; the morning sun was directly behind me, and the brillance of the light was increased by reflection from the surrounding dunes. Given such conditions a dark outline is bound to appear in your picture, but it is for the photographer to decide how he will use it. If he wants to emphasize it the procedure is simple enough–in this case by giving the minimum exposure to get the flesh fully timed, developing out for a fairly dense negative, and making a straight print on normal grade paper”.

ansel adams termed this the “limb effect” [the Negative page 133]