The accuracy of an image matching process can be improved by determining relevant swatch regions of the images, where those regions contain representative patterns of the items of interest represented in those images. Various processes examine a set of visual cues to determine at least one candidate object region, and then collate these regions to determine one or more representative swatch images. For apparel items, this can include locating regions such as an upper body region, torso region, clothing region, foreground region, and the like. Processes such as regression analysis or probability mapping can be used on the collated region data (along with confidence and/or probability values) to determine the appropriate swatch regions.