Color negatives adapted for visual inspection

A photographic element capable of producing a multicolor negative image comprised of

• a transparent film support and, coated on the support,
• a blue recording layer unit containing radiation-sensitive silver halide grains and coupler capable of forming following imagewise exposure and processing an image dye having its primary absorption in the blue region of the spectrum,
• a green recording layer unit containing radiation-sensitive silver halide grains and coupler capable of forming following imagewise exposure and processing a dye image having its primary absorption in the green region of the spectrum,
• a red recording layer unit containing radiation-sensitive silver halide grains and coupler capable of forming following imagewise exposure and processing a dye image having its primary absorption in the red region of the spectrum, and
• dyes for masking portions of the dye images that in unexposed areas of the layer units in which coupling with oxidized developing agent is absent are colored following processing,
• wherein, to facilitate visual judging of the multicolor dye negative image resulting from imagewise exposure and processing, the dyes for masking portions of the dye images are adjusted to provide, following imagewise exposure and processing, in CIE1976(L.sup.* a.sup.* b.sup.*) color space L.sup.* values of greater than 30 and C.sup.* values of less than 20, where C.sup.* values are derived from the formula:
• C.sup.* =[(a.sup.*).sup.2 +(b.sup.*).sup.2 ].sup.1/2.