Collect references and pull palettes from them
Add the images the client sent and the ones you have in mind. Studio reads each for colour, light, composition, texture and lettering, gives you its palette with proportions, and lets you save its colour grade to reuse on your own photos.
Beginner4 min readUpdated 25 September 2026Studio · References
On this page
References are how you and the client agree on a look before anyone designs anything. The References tab keeps them with the job and tells you, in words and numbers, why each one works: its colours and how much of the image each covers, where the light comes from, where the eye lands, and what kind of lettering it uses.
Add references
- Press Add references (or Choose images on an empty job) and pick one or more images.
- Drag images from your desktop anywhere onto the tab.
- Paste an image with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac), for example a screenshot. Pasting while typing in a text box pastes text as normal.
Images wider or taller than 2400 px are scaled down to 2400 px on their longest side when added, which keeps the job small. Studio reads each one as it arrives; you will see Reading N references… for a moment. Hover a card and press the bin to remove it; it also leaves the Directions board.
Each card shows a strip of the image's colours, sized by how much of the picture they cover, and a short reading such as Low-key, warm, vivid.
Read a reference
Click a reference to open it full size with its reading beside it. Buttons along the bottom of the image draw guides over it; turn on as many as you like.
| Overlay | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Thirds | The rule-of-thirds grid |
| Golden ratio | Lines at 38.2% and 61.8% each way |
| Focal point | A ring where the eye is most likely to land first |
| Where the eye goes | A heat map of the areas that stand out, by colour contrast with their surroundings and by edges |
| Negative space | Quiet areas with little detail, where type could sit |
| Lettering | A box around the line of text Studio read |
The side panel reads the image the way an art director would describe it:
- The recipe: six lines that sum it up, for example "Low-key exposure, hard contrast" or "Subject on a thirds point, 40% negative space". Useful to paste into a note or a direction's idea.
- Colour, by how much of the image it covers: up to six colours with their share in percent and a role: dominant, accent, shadow, highlight or supporting. Click any colour or hex value to copy it.
- Light: a brightness histogram, the key (low-key dark and moody, mid-key, or high-key bright and airy), contrast (soft, medium or hard), temperature (from cool to warm, with any green or magenta tint), saturation (muted, natural or vivid) and the direction the light comes from.
- Composition: where the subject sits (centred, on a thirds point, high, low or off the grid), how much negative space there is, whether lines run horizontal, vertical, diagonal or balanced, and how symmetrical it is.
- Texture: detail (crisp, moderate or soft) and grain (clean, light or visible).
- Your note: write what you like about it. It stays with the reference.
Identify the type style
The first time you open a reference, Studio looks for its biggest line of lettering and describes it: weight, width, capitals or italic, thick-thin contrast and serif style. It then lists close Google fonts, each shown in a sample.
- If it read the wrong line, or found nothing, press Point at the lettering and drag a box around one line of the biggest text.
- Copy a font name with the copy button, or press + to add a type card for it to the Directions board.
Take the look and apply it to a photo
A reference's colour grade can travel to your own images. Studio records the reference's overall colour and tonal spread, plus its grain.
- Take the look saves it on this device. In the Editor, add it to any photo from the Layers panel: New adjustment layer, Colour match from a saved look….
- Apply the look to a photo asks for a photo, saves the look, and opens the photo in the Editor with the look applied as a Colour match layer, with grain added when the reference has it.
Because the look is an adjustment layer, you can lower its opacity or mask it like any other. See Adjustment layers.
From references to a palette
References feed the job's colours in two ways. When you group references into a direction on the Directions tab (press Group into directions), the direction's palette is read from the swatches and references inside it: swatches first, then the strongest colours of the references, skipping colours too close to one already picked, up to six. An empty direction borrows the colours of all the job's references, so it never opens colourless.
To fix the palette yourself, click any colour in the direction's side panel and choose another, or press + to add one. From then on the palette stays as you set it, whatever you move on the board. Read from board goes back to reading it from the references. See Present directions and run review rounds.
Good to know
- All reading happens on your device, on a small copy of the image, in a fraction of a second. Nothing is uploaded.
- References from older Studio boards are read the first time you open the job's References tab.
- If an image cannot be read, Studio says Could not read and the file name, and carries on with the rest.