Too much color

When photographing tropical birds, often one of the problems I face is not too little color, but too much. Some of these birds are so bright and colorful, that the camera has a hard time recording the colors accurately. Often this results in “blown out” colors; ie, the color is so bright it obscures detail in the bird’s feathers, etc. This image is an example of this. These are Saffron Finches. Aptly named, they are common seed eating birds seen in many places in South America. These individuals were shot in Colombia. I had to cut down on the brightness and saturation significantly. In the original images, the birds almost glowed they were so bright.