Photoshop Tutorial : Making Thermal Images

30th January 2007

Posted in Tutorial |

This is my first Photoshop tutorial. Its a pretty simple tutorial on how to make your photographs look like they’ve been taken from a thermal imaging camera. I will illustrating each step with screenshots.

Step 1
Open the image you wish to modify. I am using a random image I took of my friends.

Step 2
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur

Step 3
Apply a Gaussian Blur between 5 - 10 pixels depending on the image resolution. I used a Gaussian Blur of 7.

Step 4
Go to Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map

Step 5
Open the Drop Down box by selecting the arrow next to default black and white gradient. In the drop down box, select the ‘Transparent Rainbow’ gradient which I have encircled below.

Step 6
Thats it. You now have an image which looks like it has been taken with a Thermal Camera. You can play around with the Gaussian Blur values and can invert the gradient for different looks.

Thanks for taking time to read my first photoshop tutorial. Feel free to give your feedback in the comments.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Tutorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On January 30th, 2007, krishnamoorthi said:

nice work - i saw it thro google reader just now - keep it up

posted on January 30th, 2007 at 9:50 pm

2 On February 1st, 2007, fk said:

good idea start
“KRISHNAMOORTHI’S PHOTOSHOP LESSONS”
BRRRRRILANT IDEA

posted on February 1st, 2007 at 7:04 pm

3 On February 7th, 2007, Brad Denn said:

This was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much

posted on February 7th, 2007 at 3:05 am

4 On May 14th, 2007, LordThanatos said:

This tutorial is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks =D

posted on May 14th, 2007 at 6:36 am

5 On May 16th, 2007, Michael said:

Amazing! I looked this up on Google, and I was expecting that this would be a really difficult effect to achieve and you’ve made it so simple! Thanks, man.

posted on May 16th, 2007 at 12:47 am

6 On May 16th, 2007, kishor said:

Glad to help you out!

posted on May 16th, 2007 at 11:01 am

7 On January 9th, 2008, Alastair said:

Thank you! this is a really simple and easy solution. It is also possible to modify the gradient map to look more like the thermal imaging camera colour range. Instead of the eight colours in the default transparent rainbow gradient try these: Colour 1 R254 G253 B 232 / 2. R254 G 240 B 83 / 3.R247 G139 B27 / 4. R231 G72 B19 / 5. R210 G32 B109 / 6. R191 G6 B 146 / 7. R53 G 1 B 145 / 8. R 1 G 0 B 75. This gives a more yellow orange red magenta to blue spectrum. Not as beautifully simple as your original but once the gradient is saved it is the same process. Thanks again.

posted on January 9th, 2008 at 9:48 pm

8 On January 11th, 2008, Kishor said:

Thanks for the tip Alastair, I’m sure it’ll be helpful for everyone.

posted on January 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am

9 On April 7th, 2008, LUcas said:

hi! IM luke im 11 and I’m fairly new to photoshop and was googlin tutorials and i saw ur site. photoshop is amazing isnt it!I think you should reverse the gradient because ppl give off heat other than that its great and keep up the good work plz dont check out my web site lol i forgot my password so its outdated lol ill post here again when its ready!

keep up the good work

posted on April 7th, 2008 at 4:06 am