White, Black or Grey?

[blighty]

Hi

Its just a quick opinion poll about photography websites, as I'm currently building mine.

Do you prefer to look at photos against a black, grey or white background?

I know some shots (like neon and other night shots) can look really good against black, but I want to adopt a uniform approach.
My photos are extremely varied, with portraits, landscapes, urban scenes, still life etc, mostly in colour.

I'm trying to build a professional-looking website, it will be minimalist in layout with pretty much only the photos on it, in categories. I will be adding the ability to buy prints (wishful thinking probably, but hey).

Really, I just want to know what people think is best overall - I know the best background can vary according to the picture, but its continuity I'm after.

So, White, Black or Grey?

[blighty]

Hey gang, its only a one-click! I chose black to get the ball rolling...

[dazzlebea]

Black here too.

[Calzinger]

white is clean and will contrast your pictures well. i've found that black gives a sense of fullness, something you don't want when photographs are the highlight of your website.

It's just my opinion, but I've continuously filtered through numerous webdesigns that I have made to fit a site where pictures would be the highlight. What you really want to do is focus on clarity and cleanliness. Even if you decide a black background, complement it with a lighter (but not white) foreground just for contrast. As long as it is clean and calm, it will be attractive.

You just don't want to overbear your photos with fancy things.

My main site, http://calzinger.net/, uses a dark theme but doesn't really complement the photos too well. It seems to work with the 3d renders and computer graphics, but the pictures don't give me that sense of clarity.

My photo site, http://photo.calzinger.net/, which I created today, uses a very light theme (white). It just feels clean and I'm very happy with it.

[bubsee]

white is a universal choice...if its good enough for huge sites like google etc..then its a safe bet that people are comfortable with a white background

[Nekomi]

I prefer black. I like to outline the photos themselves with a thin border of white to help keep dark areas from fading into the background. Black gives a very clean Euro-modern look when used in certain ways, and really helps the colors and contrast pop.

White can definitely work too - in that case I would have a medium weight black border around the images to help keep the focus on the image.