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Blown-out areas are honestly a really tricky thing, because there's literally no information in those pixels - everything's just burned to white. But there are a couple of options that might help. If the shot's in RAW format, you've got better odds - there's more data in the bright areas. In Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, try sliding the Exposure slider into the minus, then work with Highlights - sometimes you can pull out some details. If it's completely blown out, tools like Shadow/Highlights or local corrections with a gradient will help, so you can darken just the overexposed zones.
For more complicated cases, it makes sense to use specialized plugins and AI tools - they sometimes recover texture pretty convincingly. Photoshop, Capture One, DxO PhotoLab all have decent algorithms for recovering highlights. But honestly, if a face or important detail is completely white, there's no magic fix - better to reshoot. The main thing is, next time expose for the bright areas so you don't lose detail in the brightest parts of the frame.
At my dacha I often shoot on my phone, and there are these moments when the sun's in the frame or a reflection off the water just kills the details. Here's what actually helps: if you've already got a JPEG, you can try the "Highlights" tool in Lightroom or a similar tool in other editors - fair warning, there's no magic here, but sometimes it pulls out at least some information from the midtones. The key is doing it carefully, otherwise it'll look weird.
But honestly, if you're planning to shoot in tough conditions, it's better to switch to RAW from the start. There's way more information in the highlights, and your chances of recovering something are much higher. Pro editors like Capture One or Photoshop with a RAW file work wonders - I've seen guys pull details out of areas that looked completely blown out.
If things are really bad and the details won't come back - sometimes just retouching helps: add some texture, copy a similar area from another shot. But that's already Photoshop work.
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