need help with blown highlights

hello guys I am fairly new with pp techniques. This picture is something I would like to recover because it's so hard to get him to look like this lol

here is the before and after, this is my effort since I really am a newbie at this pp with lightroom, I would like your comments.

original

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

It doesn't look right or better than the original.

Instead of burning make a highlight mask and push everything but the highlights to black and duplicate a layer and apply the mask with blend multiply.

I think the 2nd photo is over all better with exception of the left cheek. That is something - when shot in raw - can easily be corrected with the exposure correction brush.

i dont mind the first one. the highlights are only a mild nuisance to an otherwise nice photo.

The edited version looks just OK. If you shoot RAW, there are several ways to retain/save highlights like those.

Sorry I must disagree, if highlights are blown then there is no detail there to recover, however you recorded the photo. I always have the highlight alert on in my camera and if i see the flashing warning wgen i review the picture i just use exposure compensation and shoot again

Agreed if there is no highlight data it can't be recovered but often there is because monitors have less bandwidth than sensors (it may look white but what's in that white?). In the second image the hand correction looked somewhat artificial to my eye and I think that was a function of a uncalibrated laptop I originally viewed this image on. This machine is calibrated and the correction is not as obvious.

thats the best I could do since I only have my laptop. I am out of the house, I'm sure I can do a bit better with layers in photoshop but lightroom is the only thing I have here and the brush can only go so far.

Bobinpeterboro wrote in post #9216280
Sorry I must disagree, if highlights are blown then there is no detail there to recover, however you recorded the photo. I always have the highlight alert on in my camera and if i see the flashing warning wgen i review the picture i just use exposure compensation and shoot again

With RAW, the highlights might seem to be blown, but there's usually about 1-stop more detail that can be extracted if your exposure was right on. That might not be enough, but it's better than nothing?

caiguar wrote in post #9213980
hello guys I am fairly new with pp techniques. This picture is something I would like to recover because it's so hard to get him to look like this lol

here is the before and after, this is my effort since I really am a newbie at this pp with lightroom, I would like your comments.

original

| Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

edited

| Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

I will agree that you cannot save what is not there. Having said that with time and patience you can recreate the areas that are blown out with a combination of the clone and heal tools.
I did the area of the boys cheek fairly quickly as well as part of the wrist, I am sure with the full res picture and more time you could save those areas in question.

Armando

Nice job, Armando!