A method suitable for reducing side lobe printing in a photolithography process is enabled by the use of a barrier layer on top of a photoresist on a substrate. The barrier layer is absorbing at the imaging wavelength of the underlying photoresist and thus blocks the light from reaching the photoresist. A first exposure followed by a development in an aqueous base solution selectively removes a portion of the barrier layer to reveal a section of the underlying photoresist layer. At least a portion of the revealed section of the photoresist layer is then exposed and developed to form a patterned structure in the photoresist layer. The barrier layer can also be bleachable upon exposure and bake in the present invention.