  Giant planets are expected to form at orbital radii that are relatively large
compared to transit and radial velocity detections (>1 AU). As a result, giant
planet formation is best observed through direct imaging. By simulating the
formation of giant (0.3-5$M_{J}$) planets by core accretion, we predict planet
magnitude in the near infrared (2-4 $\mu$m) and demonstrate that, once a planet
reaches the runaway accretion phase, it is self-luminous and is bright enough
to be detected in near infrared wavelengths. Using planet distribution models
consistent with existing radial velocity and imaging constraints, we simulate a
large sample of systems with the same stellar and disc properties to determine
how many planets can be detected. We find that current large (8-10m) telescopes
have, at most a 0.2% chance of detecting a core accretion giant planet in the
L' band and 2% in the K band for a typical solar type star. Future instruments
such as METIS and VIKiNG have higher sensitivity and are expected to detect
exoplanets at a maximum rate of 2% and 8% respectively.
