A color photographic element is disclosed comprised of a transparent film support and, coated on the support, a red recording layer unit containing the latent image forming silver halide grains in a plurality of emulsion layers with the latent image forming silver halide grains of maximum sensitivity being the first red recording emulsion layer to receive exposing radiation and containing randomly oriented red light scattering silver halide grains free of adsorbed spectral sensitizing dye. An optional layer coated beneath first layer contains tabular silver halide grains to reflect red light. Improvements in imaging speed with improvements or relatively low losses in image sharpness are realized.