Adrian Binney, EPSA, LRPS
October 2026 - Channel-billed Toucan in Rio
Original
About the Image(s)
We had a few days in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year on the long cruise (it was Rio Carnival time which was an experience!) - we went to their huge (and old) Botanical Gardens in search of wildlife - we weren't disappointed. We can across a family of these toucans very high within the old trees (800mm wasn't enough!) and it was very dark so ISO was huge - but we found this chap much lower down. I was lucky that he displayed nicely for me to take this. They are wild and visit the gardens to feed on the berries. They can be found from the very southern Caribbean islands and northern part of S America. I have posted pictures of Marmosets in this month's Nature Group 72 if interested - taken in the same Rio gardens. This was taken with a 100-400mm Olympus lens at 300mm (so FF 600) at 1/400 f6.3 ISO 5,000. PP all in Lightroom.
8 comments posted
I envy your travels and thanks for sharing this beautiful bird. Processing high ISO can be challenging but with today's software it makes a bit easier. Overall nice rendering of the capture. :)
Posted: 10/03/2026 18:40:59
Posted: 10/03/2026 18:40:59
Many thanks Steve Posted: 10/23/2026 16:28:03
As Steve notes, this is a nice capture of this unique bird. Your camera seems to handle the high ISO quite well. Exposure good and color could perhaps use just a bit more saturation. I like the old tree limb leading from the right toward the bird, which then is looking back. The pose makes for a well balanced composition. My only observation -- of course my preference -- is that the background, with all of the light spots, is somewhat cluttered. Select out the bird and the branch and then blur and darken the back? Posted: 10/08/2026 18:32:09
Thanks Jerry - I find this is frustrating - the fact that forest birds are so often high up within tall trees, inevitably leading to bright lights coming through the canopy. As it happens, there were no clippings on the white/bright side of the histogram, but nevertheless, I agree with you that they add to complicated backgrounds.
Cindy makes a good point too below. I have tweaked my original a bit - but there is no getting away from the fact that forests have to be extremely dense for light sky not to be a feature/issue. Posted: 10/23/2026 16:34:54
Cindy makes a good point too below. I have tweaked my original a bit - but there is no getting away from the fact that forests have to be extremely dense for light sky not to be a feature/issue. Posted: 10/23/2026 16:34:54
Toucans are such colorful birds! Nice that this one cooperated to pose for you. I really like the open beak that shows the red inside of the beak, very different. I also like that you can see the little bit of red at the base of the tail.
Forest birds are challenging, the background is always messy. I think this stands out as well as it can given that the background is quite blurred.
One other challenge in the forest is that the light ends up being green, as the sun filters through the leaves. I selected the background and put the white dropper in one of the bright spots to try to neutralize that. It's preference / taste to change that or not. Posted: 10/21/2026 00:55:03
Forest birds are challenging, the background is always messy. I think this stands out as well as it can given that the background is quite blurred.
One other challenge in the forest is that the light ends up being green, as the sun filters through the leaves. I selected the background and put the white dropper in one of the bright spots to try to neutralize that. It's preference / taste to change that or not. Posted: 10/21/2026 00:55:03
Thanks Cindy - you make a good point about the background's green hue. I had a mask for the background anyway (to help the blurring and make the light less intense), so on my master I have picked up the colour of pale green and reduced saturation and while doing so, reduced the luminance to address Jerry's point. This took the greens away from the foliage a bit, so I picked up dark green and increased both the same 2 sliders - this moved the focus more towards the leaf colour, while taking away the overall pale green hue of the background - very similar to your pic here (I don't use Photoshop, so had to approach the issue slightly differently).
Bottom line - the bird stands out more - so thank you! Posted: 10/23/2026 16:45:05
Bottom line - the bird stands out more - so thank you! Posted: 10/23/2026 16:45:05
Hi Adrian,
What a lovely shot of this colourful toucan! It's never easy to manage both a good background and the right exposure under a tree canopy, where light filtering through the branches creates strong contrasts between highlights and shadows. You've handled this quite well. I also agree with Cindy's suggestion about adjusting the green hue and darkening the background slightly. Posted: 10/25/2026 14:45:43
What a lovely shot of this colourful toucan! It's never easy to manage both a good background and the right exposure under a tree canopy, where light filtering through the branches creates strong contrasts between highlights and shadows. You've handled this quite well. I also agree with Cindy's suggestion about adjusting the green hue and darkening the background slightly. Posted: 10/25/2026 14:45:43
Thanks Maria - I'm learning! Posted: 10/25/2026 14:51:59