The image forming method comprising the steps of subjecting a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material comprising an yellow image forming layer, a magenta image forming layer and a cyan image forming layer to scanning exposure with a light beam so that an exposure time is not more than 10−13 second per pixel, and developing the photographic material by a color developer, wherein the maximum exposure amount (Emax) is controlled by an output of a calibration patch, and a difference between the logarithm of the exposure amount necessary to give a density of 0.3 and the logarithm of Emax is within the range of from 0.35 to 0.6 in each of the yellow, magenta and cyan image forming layers.