A color photographic element is disclosed comprised of a transparent film support and, coated on the support, a red recording layer unit containing the radiation-sensitive silver halide grains in a plurality of emulsion layers with each emulsion layer located to receive exposing radiation prior to an underlying emulsion layer containing silver halide grains of higher sensitivity than the silver halide grains located in the underlying emulsion layer. The red recording layer unit includes a red light reflective layer free of red absorbing dye and containing tabular silver halide grains having a thickness in the range of from 0.03 to 0.12 .mu.m, an average aspect ratio of greater than 20, and a coating coverage of 0.5 to 1.25 g/m.sup.2, and formed of greater than 50 mole percent bromide, based on silver, is located in the red recording layer unit interposed between two emulsion layers. Improvements in imaging speed and/or gamma with relatively low losses in image sharpness are realized.