How to add a reference image in Blender and make it show up in the render

You loaded a blueprint or a photo with Add > Image > Reference, modeled over it, pressed F12, and the image is nowhere in the render. That is how Blender works, not a bug. Here is why, how to set up references for modeling, and three ways to get the picture into the final image. Menus match Blender 5.x.

Why a reference image does not render

Add > Image > Reference and Add > Image > Background both create an empty that displays an image. An empty is a single point with no geometry. In the manual's words, because it has no volume and surface, it cannot be rendered. It only helps you while you work in the viewport.

The same goes for a camera's Background Images panel, in its Object Data properties. It shows pictures behind objects in the 3D Viewport when you look through the camera, which helps when you match a shot to a photo, but nothing from that panel ends up in the rendered image.

Three ways to add an image in Blender 5

All three are in the 3D Viewport, under Add > Image. Reference and Background only work in Object Mode.

• Reference: an image empty, created facing the current view and drawn like any other object.
• Background: the same kind of empty, set to draw behind every object (Depth: Back) and only from its front side. Added from an orthographic view, it is also hidden in perspective views.
• Mesh Plane: a real plane, sized to the image's aspect ratio, with a material that uses the image as a texture. This one renders.

Dragging an image file from your file manager onto an empty spot of the viewport also creates an image empty, except in camera view, where it becomes a camera background image. Mesh Plane is the former Import Images as Planes add-on: built into Blender since 4.2, where its menu entry became Mesh Plane. In Blender 5, it is no longer in File > Import.

Set up front, side and top references for modeling

Character sheets and blueprints come as separate views. Give each view its own empty, aligned with the matching viewpoint:

1. Press Numpad 1 for the front view, then Add > Image > Reference and pick the front image. The empty is created facing that view.
2. Press Numpad 3 for the right view and add the side image the same way, then Numpad 7 for the top view.
3. Scale (S) and move (G) each image until the same feature, such as the overall height, lines up in every view. Offset X and Y, in the Empty panel, shift the image relative to the empty's origin.

Then tune each empty in Object Data properties, Empty panel, with the settings the manual suggests for this job:

• Depth: Front with a low Opacity, to see the image over your mesh while you trace it.
• Show In: untick Perspective so references stay out of the way when you orbit the model. Only Axis Aligned shows the image only when the view is aligned with the empty's local axis, so the front image disappears in the side view.
• Side: with photos of the front and the back, set one empty to Front and the other to Back, so each one shows only from its own side.

The 3D modeling guide covers the modeling itself.

Opacity, depth and locking

These settings sit in Object Data properties, Empty panel, once the image empty is selected.

• Opacity: tick the box, then lower the value to blend the image with the background.
• Depth: Default draws the image like any object, Front always on top of other objects, Back always behind them. The setting is grayed out while In Front is enabled in Object Properties > Viewport Display.
• Locking: in Object Properties > Visibility, untick Selectable. Viewport clicks then go through the image, so you cannot drag it by mistake.

How to render a reference image in Blender

1. Convert the reference to a mesh plane

This is the quickest fix when the empty is already in place. Select it and choose Object > Convert > Convert to Mesh Plane (also in the right-click menu). Blender builds a textured plane with the same image and the same transform, and by default deletes the empty (Delete Reference Object).

In the operator panel, pick the Shader:

• Principled: the image goes into Base Color, so the plane is lit by your scene like any other surface.
• Shadeless: a material that does not respond to lighting, built from Diffuse and Emission shaders mixed by a Light Path node. The tooltip sums it up: only visible to camera and reflections.
• Emission: the image goes into the Emission input, and Emission Strength sets its brightness.

2. Add the image as a plane that fills the camera

For a backdrop seen through the camera, such as a photo behind a product, Add > Image > Mesh Plane can size the plane to the camera frame. The scene needs a camera.

1. Place the 3D cursor where the backdrop should stand, behind your subject. The plane is created at the cursor, then centered in the camera frame, and its size is computed from its distance to the camera.
2. Choose Add > Image > Mesh Plane and pick the image.
3. In the options, set Size Mode to Scale to Camera Frame, with Fill (fills the frame, possibly cropping the image) or Fit (the whole image inside the frame). Align switches to Face Camera.
4. Choose Shadeless or Emission as the shader, so the scene's lights do not change the picture.

The size is computed once, when the plane is created: move the camera later and the plane no longer matches the frame. With Face Camera, Track Camera keeps a Copy Rotation constraint so the plane keeps facing the camera. The camera guide covers framing.

3. Composite the picture behind the render

When the picture is only a background and nothing in the scene needs to reflect it, the compositor can place it behind the render:

1. In Render Properties > Film, enable Transparent. The background now renders transparent.
2. Open the Compositor and click New to create a node tree.
3. Add an Image node with your picture and an Alpha Over node. Plug the picture into Background, the Image output of the Render Layers node into Foreground, and the result into the output.
4. Check that Compositing is ticked in Output Properties > Post Processing.

Use a picture with the same resolution as the render so the two line up. Since the picture is added after rendering, it shows up in no reflection and lights nothing. For a background that also lights the scene, an HDRI in the World is the usual tool; see the guide to HDRI lighting.

Why the picture may not match the original file

Whatever the method, the picture goes through the scene's color management. AgX, the default view transform in new files since Blender 4.0, is a tone mapping transform, so the picture will not look exactly like the file on disk. The Standard view transform does no conversion besides the one for the display, but it changes the look of the whole render, not just the backdrop.

Common problems with reference images

• Visible in the viewport, missing from the render: it is an image empty or a camera background image. Convert it to a mesh plane.
• Image objects can only be added in Object Mode: press Tab to leave Edit Mode, then add the image again.
• The image vanishes when you orbit: Perspective is unticked under Show In (a Background image added from an orthographic view starts that way), Only Axis Aligned is on, or Side hides the side you are looking at.
• The reference hides the model: set Depth to Back, or keep Front and lower the Opacity. If Depth is grayed out, turn off In Front in Viewport Display.
• The rendered plane is dark or changes with the lights: it uses the Principled shader. Convert or add it again with Shadeless or Emission.

To render the final image or animation, the guide on how to render in Blender covers engines, output and saving.