There is an interesting shadow recovery task some one posted here recently. I’ve tried to note what I did to a few tries. The tough part is getting the colour of the dog more correct and the rest reasonable.
[PlayRaw] RAW Challenge: Backlit - #46
I’d emphasise the point Morgan made about the curves. They are what the shadow and etc recovery use but with less control. GIMP’s level controls are a sort of in between as far as simple use is concerned but also have the advantage that colour balance can be changed. That can be more tricky to do with curves but that facility isn’t available in the exposure curves in RT and it doesn’t have the same style of levels control either.