A method for forming an image by the steps of:(a) imagewise exposing a heat-developable color light-sensitive material;(b) uniformly exposing at least a portion of the heat-developable light-sensitive material; and(c) heat developing the imagewise exposed and uniformly exposed heat-developable light-sensitive material to form a color image.The present invention also includes an apparatus for forming an image on a heat-developable color light-sensitive material by imagewise exposing the material, uniformly exposing at least a portion of the material, and developing the uniformly exposed and imagewise exposed material by application of heat to form a color image, the apparatus comprising:imagewise exposure means for imagewise exposing the heat-delvelopable positive color light-sensitive material;uniform exposure means for uniformly exposing at least a portion of the heat-developable light-sensitive material;transferring means for superposing an image-receiving sheet member onto the imagewise exposed and uniformly exposed heat-developable color light-sensitive material; andheating means for heating the superposed heat-developable light-sensitive material and the image-receiving sheet member, to develop a color image and transfer the image from the heat-developable light-sensitive material to the image-receiving sheet member.According to the invention, heat-developable materials can be used to reproduce originals having various gradations, or continuous-tone and on-off originals, simply and quickly.