Hi Doe; Not a dumb question. Color negative film, especially machine printed, have the most "room for interpretation" of any of the mediums.
These are some of the variables; Brand and model of printer Brand of paper Brand of chemistry How well balanced the channel for the film type is Where the chemistry plots are ( within being in control) Operator Color masking on film Color minilabs do not "see" in color. Rather they see in red, green and blue and through the built in color analyzer try to turn that into neutral grey. If you have a predominant color you quite often will get a color shift in its complement (i.e.. a lot of red may cause a shift to cyan). Unlike color slides, you do not have a positive to compare it to. So the operator has to "guess" what is correct color. As long as there is something identifiable (like grass, skin tone, etc.) a decent operator can get an acceptable print, but his/her idea of what the grass should look like may be different from the way you remember it, which both may be different from what it actually was. Then you add the problem of different machines have different algorithms so they will print differently. So anytime you have a print you like bring it with you as a guide so that the operator knows how you envision the print. If you find a good lab they may occasionally say they can improve on the print and may make a test print to show you. If they do and they are right you have found a very good lab. To answer your final question a properly printed color neg will give you the best color. The brightness range of a color neg is about 2 stops greater then a slide which will give you a smoother color and better detail in your highlights and shadows. The over saturated color print may have been done on a poorly adjusted digital minilab. They can give you an artificial looking print if set up incorrectly. I hope this helps. BUTCH "Each man had only one genuine vocation - to find the way to himself" Hermann Hesse (Demian)
