The invention provides a color photographic element comprising at least
one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer or a non
silver-containing light-insensitive layer, in which at least one of these
layers contains a colorless heterocyclic compound having either one or
two hetero atoms in the ring or ring system, being other than an
imidazole compound, that undergoes less than 10% chemical or redox
reaction directly with oxidized developer and which has a partition
coefficient to enable the photographic speed of the element to be
increased by at least 0.03 stop without increasing granularity, compared
to the same element without the compound. The heterocyclic compounds
increase speed without a concomitant increase in size of the
light-sensitive silver halide grains.