An apparatus and method for determining an image similarity based on image features. In one aspect, the image similarity determination is based on an image comparison tool. The image comparison tool may be trained, by a machine-learning system, to estimate a similarity between images based on a subset of image data comprised by image features. The estimate may be an estimate of how similar structures found in the images would be following a geometric transformation of some of the structures. In one aspect, an atlas image for performing automatic segmentation of an image is determined according to a comparison made using the image comparison tool.