The invention is accomplished by providing an aqueous dispersion of a photographic coupler by precipitation from a solvent solution by solvent and/or pH shift. A second aqueous dispersion of an activating permanent solvent for the photographic coupler is also provided. The dispersion of activating permanent solvent and photographic coupler are combined to form a combined dispersion with relatively low amounts of coupler solvent which may be then mixed with a gelatin dispersion of silver halide particles to form a photographic emulsion coating composition suitable for casting as a photographic element layer. The coupler is selected to have a logP greater than or equal to about 10 and the activating solvent is selected to have a logP greater than or equal to about 8 and a Tg less than or equal to about -80.degree. C. to provide stable, small size photographically active coupler dispersions without the need for nonionic water soluble polymers and with minimal amount of added solvent. Use of a weight ratio of permanent solvent to coupler within the range of from 0.01:1 to 0.3:1 in accordance with the invention enables thin photographic layers to be coated with good photographic activity.