An apparatus including a palette body, a plurality of heat distribution plates mounted on the body and positioned adjacent each other, a plurality of insulators positioned intermediate the adjacently positioned heat distribution plates, and a plurality of thermal camera calibration reference swatches including a near-ideal blackbody reference swatch, a diffuse reflective reference swatch, and a first material of the device under testing reference swatch, each reference swatch being mounted on a corresponding one of the heat distribution plates and thermally insulated from other reference swatches by the insulators.