Light and heat are necessary conditions for human survival. Reasonable regulation of light and heat can not only make human life more convenient but also solve the urgent problems in space exploration. The microstructure represented by photonic crystals endows the material with novel optical characteristics. The photothermal regulation performance can be significantly improved by making the key materials microstructured to meet the needs of the human application in civil applications and military. This paper starts from the principle of photothermal regulation, mainly includes four parts: at first, mainly discusses microsphere synthesis, preparation and spectral properties of opal structure photonic crystal and inverse opal structure photonic crystal; then the application of microstructure represented by the photonic crystal in the regulation of optical properties is presented. Whereafter, the application of microstructure photothermal regulation in smart thermal control and smart windows is briefly discussed, which is based on the principle of radiative heat transfer. The new research on radiative selfcooling of the microstructure is introduced. At last, the application prospect of photothermal regulation is prospected by combining with the existing studies abroad.