Silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material

A silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material comprising a support having thereon a silver halide emulsion layer containing a coupler having, at the coupling active position, a group which provides a compound having a development inhibiting property when the group is released from the coupling active position of the coupler upon the color development reaction and which is decomposed to a compound which does not substantially influence the photographic properties when the compound diffuses into a color developing solution, the coupler containing no water-soluble group during development but becoming water-soluble when dissolved in a developer and hydrolyzed and the coupler being represented by general formula (I)

• A--L.sub.1).sub.a Z--L.sub.2 -Y).sub.b (I)
• wherein A represents a coupler component;
• Z represents an essential portion of a compound having a development inhibiting function which is bonded to the coupling position of the coupler directly (when a is 0) or through a connecting group of the formula L.sub.1 (when a is 1), the portion being represented by any one of the formulae ##STR21## where X represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkanamido group, an alkenamido group, an alkoxy group, a sulfonamido group, or an aryl group;
• Y represents a substituted straight chain or substituted branch chain alkyl group, a cyclic alkyl group which is unsubstituted or substituted, an alkenyl group, an aryl group, an aralkyl group or a heterocyclic group;
• L.sub.1 represents ##STR22## where V represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, W represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkanamido group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxycarbonyl group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an aryloxycarbonyl group, an alkanesulfonamido group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an aryl group, a carbamoyl group, an N-alkylcarbamoyl group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, a nitro group, a cyano group, an arylsulfonamido group, a sulfamoyl group, or an imido group, and c is 0 or an integer of 1 or 2;
• L.sub.2 is a divalent connecting group containing a chemical bond which is broken in a photographic developing solution, the chemical bond being represented by the formula ##STR23## a represents 0 or 1;
• and b represents 1 or 2, and when b is 2, the groups represented by --L.sub.2 --Y may be the same or different.