Application of protective polymer to processed diffusion transfer light sensitive element

In a process for forming a diffusion transfer negative element capable of being employed to provide positive reflection images which comprises:

• a. exposing a diffusion transfer photosensitive element comprising a silver halide layer to actinic radiation;
• b. providing a layer of processing composition including a developing agent whose adherence to said negative element after the development and fixing of said negative element would adversely affect the quality of the negative image, a silver halide solvent, and a film-forming polymer between said exposed diffusion transfer photosensitive element and a diffusion transfer silver receptive stratum in face-to-face relationship therewith;
• c. developing said exposed diffusion transfer photosensitive element to provide a negative image and forming a positive image thereof in said silver receptive stratum by silver diffusion transfer as a function of point-to-point degree of exposure of said photosensitive element;
• d. separating said silver receptive stratum from said negative image which has said layer of processing composition adhered thereto;
• e. washing said developed negative with aqueous sodium sulfite;
• and
• f. washing said negative with water,
• the improvement which comprises removing said processing composition layer while still moist and before washing with aqueous sodium sulfite by swabbing said negative image with a solution of a vapor-permeable polymeric macromolecule;
• and applying to the surface of said developed negative image while said surface is still moist a uniform layer of said vapor-permeable macromolecule whereby washing of said negative image may be delayed for an extended period without injury to it.