Photographic element having improved dye stability, compound, and imaging process

Disclosed is a photographic element comprising a light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer having associated therewith a bicyclic azole dye-forming coupler, having appended to a ring carbon at a non-coupling position thereof a substituent group represented by the formula: wherein the arrow represents the point of attachment of the substituent group to a non-coupling position of the coupler,R1, R2, R3 and R4 are independently selected hydrogen or substituent groups, provided that any two of R1, R2, R3 and R4 may join to form a ring;Ra and Rb are independently hydrogen or a substituent;each Rc and Rd is an independently selected hydrogen or an alkyl or aryl group, provided that any two of them may join to form a ring and n is 1 to 10;Re is hydrogen or an alkyl or aryl group;each Y is an independently selected substituent group and m is from 0 to 4; andZ is a substituent selected from the group consisting of -C(O)R5, -S(O)2R5, -SOR5, -P(=O)(R6)2 and -P(=O)(OR6)2 in which R5 is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, aryl, heterocyclic, alkoxy, aryloxy, alkylamino, and arylamino groups and each R6 is independently selected from the group consisting of alkyl and aryl groups; provided that Z can form a ring with any one of Rc and Rd. Such an element provides improved image dye stability.