Dual process compatible color photothermographic element comprising dry thermal development

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method of processing color photographic film that has been imagewise exposed in a camera, said film having at least three light-sensitive units which have their individual sensitivities in different wavelength regions, each of the units comprising at least one light-sensitive silver-halide emulsion, binder, and dye-providing coupler, which method in order comprises: (a) thermally developing the film step without any externally applied developing agent, comprising heating said film to a temperature greater than 80° C. in an essentially dry process, such that an internally located blocked developing agent in reactive association with each of said three light-sensitive units becomes unblocked to form a developing agent, whereby the unblocked developing agent forms dyes by reacting with the dye-providing couplers to form a color negative image; (b) processing the developed film of step(a) by contacting it with a non-blocked developing agent, under agitation at a temperature of 30 to 50° C. under aqueous alkaline conditions, without forming a color negative image in the film by reaction of the non-blocked developing agent with the dye-providing couplers inside the silver-halide emulsions, and (c) desilvering said film in one or more desilvering solutions to remove unwanted silver and/or silver halide, thereby forming a color negative image; and (d) thereafter forming a positive-image color print from the desilvered film.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.