Grade toward a reference image

Drop an image onto the color wheel to plot its colors beside your own photo's, then grade until your colors reach them.

Drag an image onto the color wheel and its colors are plotted there as outlined squares, among your photo's own dots. Your dots move as you grade; the squares stay put.

A reference is read, never applied. Dropping one changes nothing in your edit, so there is nothing to undo: a photo shows where its colors ended up, not where they started, and which color in your frame belongs there is yours to decide.

The editor mid-drag: the photo being edited fills the left side, while on the right the color wheel is covered by a dashed drop zone showing an image icon and the line 'Drop to show this image's colors on the wheel'. — Drag and drop your reference image over the color wheel.

Drop an image on the wheel

With a photo open on the Color tab (2), drag an image file onto the wheel — a JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, or HEIF. The wheel reframes so both sets of colors are in view, and the reference opens beside your photo.

The two layers

Your photo stays the familiar cloud of filled dots, updating as you grade. The reference is drawn as outlined squares. They are read-only: they never move, and they can't be clicked, selected, or dragged.

Compare split view: the photo being edited on the left, a bright green and sand beach photo on the right with a caption line beneath it. Above the color wheel a chip shows the reference's thumbnail, the filename _DSF6228_export.jpg, the 1 and 2 toggles, and a close button. The wheel shows both layers at once — the reference's outlined squares and the photo's filled dots — with Full range, Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows at the top left. — Both layers on one disc: your filled dots and the reference's outlined squares, with the reference itself open alongside the photo.

Grade toward the squares

Find a part of the wheel where your dots and the squares disagree, place a pin on that color, and drag until your dots sit over the squares. See Editing colors for placing and shaping pins.

The Working range chips narrow both layers together, so tapping Highlights compares only the bright colors of each — like against like, rather than a whole reference against one band of your photo.

Put them side by side

Once a reference is loaded, a Compare button appears at the top center of the photo area and opens the reference beside your photo. Hovering anywhere on the reference puts a crosshair on the wheel at that color's position, the same way hovering your own photo does — that is how you tie a color you can see in the picture to a square you can aim at. Drag the divider to resize the panes, double-click it to reset.

The reference chip

Above the wheel, 1 shows or hides your photo's colors and 2 the reference's, which is how you read one layer alone where the two overlap. Both are display-only. ✕ removes the reference.

A reference stays loaded when you move to another photo, so you can grade a whole set against one target. It lasts for the session.

For what the disc's axes mean, see The color wheel.

Try this with your own photo — Tone Caliper is a free trial on Windows and macOS.

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