Photographic elements containing 2-equivalent pyrazolone couplers and process for their use

A photographic element comprising at least one photosensitive silver halide emulsion layer having associated therewith a 5-pyrazolone photographic coupler represented by the formula:

• ##STR22## wherein:
• a) substituents X.sub.1, X.sub.2, Y, G.sub.1, and G.sub.2 are individually selected from the group consisting of halogen, alkyl, alkoxy, aryloxy, acylamino, alkylthio, arylthio, sulfonamido, sulfamoyl, sulfamido, carbamoyl, diacylamino, alkoxycarbonyl, aryloxycarbonyl, alkoxysulfonyl, aryloxysulfonyl, alkylsulfonyl, arylsulfonyl, alkylsulfinyl, arylsulfinyl, alkoxycarbonylamino, aryloxycarbonylamino, alkylureido, arylureido, acyloxy, nitro, trifluoromethyl and carboxy and, in the case of X.sub.1, X.sub.2, and Y, hydrogen;
• b) a, b, and c are individually integers form 0 to 3 provided that "a" cannot be an integer which, combined with the selection of X.sub.1 and X.sub.2, allows the number of chloride substituents on the ring containing G.sub.1 to exceed 3;
• c) G.sub.3 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen, acylamino, sulfonamido, sulfamido, carbamoyl, diacylamino, alkoxycarbonyl, aryloxycarbonyl, alkoxysulfonyl, aryloxysulfonyl, alkylsulfonyl, arylsulfonyl, alkylsulfinyl, arylsulfinyl, alkoxycarbonylamino, aryloxycarbonylamino, alkylureido, arylureido, acyloxy, trifluoromethyl and carboxyl;
• d) R.sub.1 is selected from the group consisting of G.sub.1 and hydroxyl;
• e) Z is an alkyl group containing at least 3 carbon atoms;
• and
• f) the sum of the Hammett's sigma values for X.sub.1, X.sub.2, Y, G.sub.1, G.sub.2, and G.sub.3 is at least 1.3.