Baby with blown highlights. Any pointers for fixing?

[HopePan]

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Williambathtowel-1 by HopePan, on Flickr[/img]
Highlights are blown, is there a way to properly expose white without underexposing everything else? Tips please.
Also, how to you convert to sRGB?

 

[Tee]

Did you use flash on this? That's either a softbox or window in the catchlights of his eyes.

 

[HopePan]

Window in the room. It was sorta an improv shoot. Trying to get better at that sort of thing.

 

[TonysTouch]

What editing program(s) do you have?

With a RAW converter you can always try recovery to bring back the detail. I'm on my iPad so I'm not sure what file type this is.

Or if that doesn't work, you could always get creative and try blowing the towel out more.

 

[Big Mike]

Highlights are blown, is there a way to properly expose white without underexposing everything else?

Depends on the scene. If the range of tones (dynamic range) is greater than what your camera can capture (dynamic range), then you won't be able to expose for everything without loosing highlights or shadows. As the photographer, you get to make the choice.

Now, in this scene, I don't think it exceeds what your camera is capable of, but it does have some very bright whites. So if you want to prevent those from blowing out, you need to reduce the exposure, which would make the whole image darker...but that's part of the choice. Now, keep in mind that it's often a fine line between blown out, and just being white in the photo. The towel is white...so if you want to actually see the detail/texture of it, you probably have to underexpose it a little bit...which of course would mean slightly underexposing everything else.
That's why it's tricky to use bright white in a photo like this. It would be easier to use a towel that isn't so bright. Or, you could try to prevent some light from hitting the towel, while not preventing light from hitting the baby.

In this shot, I don't think it's a big issue that some of the towel is blown out. The baby is the subject and they are well exposed, and that's what counts. If this was an ad for towels...then we'd have an issue to fix.

Also, how to you convert to sRGB?

What software are you using?

 

[The_Traveler]

I think this is just plain overexposed and the light is pretty harsh and cold.
Avoid blown out blankets by not using white things unless you have really great light control.

 

[MLeeK]

The baby is good, the towel isn't. I don't know as I'd try to recover it so much as use a texture to help mask the blown from drawing the eye.
When shooting turn on the highlight warning alert so it flashes over anything you've blown on. It's not perfect with white, however so you will need to also read your histogram and know roughly what it should look like. You can't accurately use the highlight warnings with white because that actually tells you when you have blown one or more color channel. With white you may well blow one color channel, but still have exactly what is needed.

My trick for white is to use a white washcloth and push the exposure up until the point JUST before you'd lose the texture of the washcloth to a blow out. White should meter about +1 to +2 depending on your camera and how tight it's metering system is. I know with the lower end cameras it's not so tight as it is with the higher end. You'll have to experiment with your camera to know exactly how it will perform and what is the right spot for you.

 

[paigew]

I agree with Lew, don't use white things. What do you use to edit? In LR I would use a brush set to 'exposure' lower it and paint the towel.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

I agree with Lew, don't use white things. What do you use to edit? In LR I would use a brush set to 'exposure' lower it and paint the towel.

Me too

 

[Tee]

Convert to black and white, baby!