A variation of a method for estimating a quantity of a blood component in a fluid canister includes: within an image of a canister, identifying a reference marker on the canister; selecting an area of the image based on the reference marker; correlating a portion of the selected area with a fluid level within the canister; estimating a volume of fluid within the canister based on the fluid level; extracting a feature from the selected area; correlating the extracted featured with a concentration of a blood component within the canister; and estimating a quantity of the blood component within the canister based on the estimated volume and the concentration of the blood component within the canister.