Here's How a Computer Science Student Used Microsoft Excel to Create HDR Photos

Whenever you ask one of your creative peers which software they use to edit, you’re probably expecting an answer along the lines of "Photoshop" or "Lightroom." Microsoft Excel is unlikely to be high up on your list – but software engineer Kevin Chen has actually managed to create an HDR photo using exactly that.

In this twelve minute video, Chen can be seen talking at !!Con 2017 (pronounced “Bang Bang Con”), presenting the experiment for which he used Microsoft Excel to create an HDR photo.

Introducing the project, he joked:

Have you ever taken a photo with areas that are too bright or too dark? As any photographer will tell you, high dynamic range photography is the right way to solve your problem. And, as any businessperson will tell you, Microsoft Excel is the right platform to implement your solution.

Previously a camera software intern at Apple, Chen is now studying computer science at Columbia University. Having studied papers on the foundations of HDR imagery and its components, Chen summarized its algorithm as being, simply, “just a system of linear equations.” Easy, right?

So what’s the logic? Chen broke down his images into grayscale pixels, with a pixel filling each individual cell in the spreadsheet. After making the cells square, he used the zoom level setting to zoom out, thus revealing the photo in full. Notice in the comparison image below, the stained glass windows, in particular, bear significantly more detail. Ta-da!

You can find more of Chen’s work at his website and his LinkedIn.

[via Confreaks]