One bath type silver dye bleaching and silver bleaching

In a positive-positive silver dye bleaching process which comprises the steps of a black-and-white development, a dye bleaching, a silver bleaching and a fixing, the improvement which comprises the combination of the dye bleaching and silver bleaching steps by utilizing a one bath solution having a pH of below 1.5 which comprises the following components:

• a. at least one compound which forms a salt or a complex with silver selected from the group consisting of water soluble organic halides, water soluble inorganic halides, thiourea, thiourea derivatives, mercapto compounds, alkali metal salts of sulfur, alkaline earth metal salts of sulfur, urea, cystein, guanidine, aminoguanidine, cyanides and thiocyanides in an amount of from about 5 to about 150g/liter;
• b. at least one acid selected from sulfamic acid, aliphatic and aromatic sulfonic acids, aliphatic and aromatic sulfinic acids, phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid in an amount of from about 10 to about 120 g/liter, and
• c. at least one organic acid having at least one carboxyl group in the molecule in an amount from about 2 to about 60 g/liter and
• d. at least one ferric salt in an amount of from about 2 to about 60 g/liter, or a complex of said organic acid c) and said ferric salt d) in an amount of from about 4 to about 120 g/liter instead of said organic acid c) and said ferric salt d) in separate form.