Abstract: The influences of sulfite in color developer on the color image formation process in an incorporated cyan coupler photographic system were investigated. The results indicated that sulfite can promoted the formation of silver image, but it decreased the apparent coupling efficiency of the coupler and increased the unwanted absorption of cyan dye image. The influences of sulfite in color developer on the microscopic structure of the dye cloud were also observed.

Key words: color image formation process, competitor, sulfite