An imaging system includes an array of photodetectors configured to produce an array of intensity values corresponding to light intensity at the photodetectors. The imaging system can include a display for display images acquired with the array of photodetectors, after some image and display processing. The image and display processing components of the imaging system produce an array of display-formatted pixels for display on the imaging system display. The display-formatted pixels include at least a first plurality of pixels formatted for display using a first lookup table and a second plurality of pixels formatted for display using a second lookup table. Threshold criteria for choosing which pixels belong to which plurality are determined from analysis of a scene indicated by a user as a background scene. Once the threshold criteria are determined from the background the criteria are applied to pixels in subsequent image frames, and the pixels that meet the criteria are displayed in at least one color table LUT and the pixels that do not are displayed in a at least one different color table LUT. In a particular embodiment. The criteria may be above or below the max scene value (or temperature) from the background scene and pixels below the criteria may be displayed in a monochrome or non-vivid color table and pixels above the criteria are displayed in a vivid color table.