Colour Analyzer

What it does

Groups every pixel in the photo into colour buckets and reports the most common ones as a dominant-colour palette, then estimates whether the overall colour cast leans warm (orange/yellow) or cool (blue) by comparing the average red and blue channel levels.

What you'll need

• A photo (JPEG, PNG, WebP, etc.) from your device.

Steps

1. Tap "Upload a photo" and choose an image.
2. The palette and white balance estimate appear automatically.

Reading the result

Each swatch shows a dominant colour's hex code and roughly what share of the photo it covers. The white balance line is a fast estimate, not a colorimeter reading — “warm”/“cool” describes the overall tint across the whole frame, which is useful for spotting an obvious colour-temperature mismatch (e.g. a photo shot under tungsten light with daylight white balance) but won't catch a cast that's localised to one area.

Tips

• A photo with strongly saturated subject matter (e.g. a red sunset) will naturally skew warm here even with correct white balance — treat this as a hint, not a verdict.
• Use this alongside the Exposure Analyzer — a colour cast can sometimes look like an exposure problem at a glance.

What is white balance, and how does this tool estimate it?

White balance is the colour-temperature calibration that makes whites and neutrals actually look white in a photo, rather than tinted orange (too warm) or blue (too cool) by the colour of the light source. This tool doesn't measure true colour temperature in Kelvin — it estimates a rough warm/cool/neutral lean by comparing the average red and blue channel levels across the whole image, alongside grouping every pixel into colour buckets to report the most common dominant colours.

Why photographers use it

An obvious white-balance mismatch is easy to spot with this at a glance — a shot taken under tungsten or incandescent light with the camera still set to daylight white balance, for example, gives everything a strong orange cast that's easy to miss on a small screen. It also works as a quick check on a shot's dominant colour palette, useful for keeping a consistent look across a portfolio or social feed.

Common mistakes

• Reading a naturally warm or cool subject as a white-balance error. a red sunset, autumn foliage, or a blue-hour scene will skew this estimate warm or cool even with technically correct white balance. The estimate reflects overall colour cast across the whole frame, not necessarily a mistake to fix.
• Expecting a precise Kelvin value. this is a fast warm/cool/neutral lean, not a colorimeter reading. Treat it as a hint to investigate further in your editing software, not a precise measurement to correct against.
• Missing a colour cast confined to one area. the average-based estimate catches an overall tint across the whole frame but won't catch a cast confined to part of it — one side of a room lit by a window, the other by a lamp, for instance.
• Confusing a colour cast with an exposure problem. a strong warm or cool tint can look similar to an exposure issue at a glance. Cross-check with the Exposure Analyzer tool if you're not sure which is actually going on.
• Judging dominant colours from a downsized or heavily compressed copy. like the other Photo Analysis tools, this measures the pixels it's actually given — a recompressed or resized copy can shift the reported percentages slightly from what the original file would show.

Example settings

FAQ

Does this replace a proper colorimeter or Kelvin reading?

No — it's a fast average-based estimate, not a precise colour-temperature measurement. Use a colorimeter or a grey/white reference card in-frame if you need an exact value.

Why does a red sunset show as "warm" even though I shot it correctly?

The estimate reflects overall colour cast across the frame, and strongly saturated warm subject matter skews it the same way an actual white-balance mismatch would. Treat it as a hint, not a verdict on correctness.

What do the dominant colour percentages actually represent?

Roughly what share of the photo's pixels fall into each reported colour bucket — useful for a quick palette overview, not a precise colour-grading measurement.

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No — this runs entirely in your browser, the same as the other Photo Analysis tools.

Can this fix my white balance for me?

No — it only reports an estimate. Adjust white balance in your editing software, or reshoot with a different camera white balance setting, based on what you see here and in the actual image.