Recommended Portrait background color

What background color do you guys and gals recommend for portraits and small groups.

I need to get a portable background system and I would like to get the best color for that type of pictures.

Thanks
R.

Depends.. What demographic are the subjects?

I did an elementary school dance and used a hand-painted blue. It was fun, playful and looked great.

I use Savage Thunder Gray paper. With it I can achieve black, white, gray, or gel a flash and make it any color I want. A colored background would be too limiting; a white background could be turned black but you can't really use gelled flashes on it because it kills the color saturation; a black background eats flash power and is hardest to turn white; gray is a good balance of all, plus correctly exposed thunder gray looks pretty cool, in my opinion.

Have you considered using a green screen and a program like PhotoKey? It's not for everyone, but I gave up buying muslins and seldom shoot individuals or small groups against anything by my green screen.

No I haven't considered a green screen. I'm not familiar with it to be honest and at this point i'm in a time crunch situation. I've also heard mixed feelings about it. If I had more time it might be a consideration.

I've gotten a few suggestions of the thunder gray so I think I'll go with that.

R.