Photography website background color

[Lauffray]

Just a quick poll, when browsing photography websites online, which is your preferred background color ?

 

[swoop]

White is a great background. There are very few photo books with black backgrounds.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Buff

Cheers,

R.

 

[pdexposures]

"When I taught web design at university I had three "suggestions."

1) Black is for heavy metal groups
2) Centered text is for tombstones
3) Flash is the new Blink tag
"

As someone who does graphic design for a living these are three very good rules haha

 

[Lauffray]

When I taught web design at university I had three "suggestions."

1) Black is for heavy metal groups
2) Centered text is for tombstones
3) Flash is the new Blink tag

good one ! 😀

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

re: Three Rules—

As another person who does graphic design for a 'living,' i would also concur. But, also stay away from the mechanical/digital rule around the image. Reminds me of 1980s yearbook design....

 

[Lauffray]

re: Three Rules—

As another person who does graphic design for a 'living,' i would also concur. But, also stay away from the mechanical/digital rule around the image. Reminds me of 1980s yearbook design....

What do you mean by rule ?

 

[erikhaugsby]

I like white.

To add an additional question, how do "you" prefer to navigate? I see three principal method:

1. Side-scrolling
2. Up/down scrolling
3. Slideshow

 

[Lauffray]

I like white.

To add an additional question, how do "you" prefer to navigate? I see three principal method:

1. Side-scrolling
2. Up/down scrolling
3. Slideshow

horizontal or vertical scrolling are best in my opinion, even the much debated "infinite" scrolling. Slideshows and heavy carousels get on my nerves more often than not

 

[Matus]

I would go with dark-is grey with white text (if there is some). But it depends on the subject/topic. For example I would probably go with lighter color (even white) for wedding photography.

I think the best is to go through some webpages - save those that you like and browse them again. That may help a lot.

 

[Joosep]

horizontal or vertical scrolling are best in my opinion, even the much debated "infinite" scrolling. Slideshows and heavy carousels get on my nerves more often than not

Same here.

I feel a portfolio should be like a exhibition. You go in and start walking and looking at pictures. You dont go in and start cherrypicking, the artist should have done that.

 

[johannielscom]

Can't just answer that question, since it depends on the kind of photographs shown.

Pictures that are mostly dark and have a lot of black should definitely not go onto a black background, but onto a white or gray one.

High-key shots could go on either background, as long as they have a black or gray border when put onto a white background.

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

What do you mean by rule ?

Sorry this reply comes so late....

A 'rule' is a fine line. In this situation, the 'box' around the photo. I think the term probably came from a shortening of "ruler line" or some such. Essentially, it's just a Border.

 

[daveleo]

For my personal photo page (not a professional business page), I eventually
settled on a neutral gray (#404040) background, and I included a scaled
matte border around the pictures. (Photos are 8X10" matted to 11X14".)

For my photos, black was too dramatic. White was too sterile.

 

[Colin Corneau]

You folks *do* realize a backlit screen is different than a reflected-light page of paper, right..?

Having a white screen will inevitably cause a (perceived) lightening of your image. Black on a computer monitor is colour-neutral and is faithful to the tones of your image.

If that kind of thing is considered important...

 

[Addy101]

For my personal photo page (not a professional business page), I eventually settled on a neutral gray (#404040) background

Yes, I agree, darkish grey, but it isn't in the poll :bang:

 

[daveleo]

Yes, I agree, darkish grey, but it isn't in the poll :bang:

so . . . take a wild wild guess as to what I voted for . . . . 🙄

 

[nightfly]

I absolutely hate horizontal scrolling. It is super annoying and non-intuitive.

Just need to put that out there.

 

[Photo_Smith]

I prefer black for websites and cream (off white) for printed B&W images black for colour.
White backgrounds on the internet cause the lower tones to compress and the higher ones to shift upward. White would be better for a high key graphic look, or setting a mood like weddings, but for critical tonal reproduction especially lower tones the adaptive nature of our eyes make ffffff less suitable than electronic black.
Judge for yourself, look at the link below; does the black stepwedge seem to go further? If not then personal preference will drive your choice:

To re-iterate what Colin said above, print is different to transmissive; white would be a better choice in most cases for prints, black will give a better tonal range with transmissive (slides/cine film movies/monitors)

 

[Lauffray]

You folks *do* realize a backlit screen is different than a reflected-light page of paper, right..?

Having a white screen will inevitably cause a (perceived) lightening of your image. Black on a computer monitor is colour-neutral and is faithful to the tones of your image.

If that kind of thing is considered important...

White will cause a perceived lightening, but black is not neutral, it will cause a perceived darkening of colors actually. Technically speaking 18% gray is closest to neutral with regards to content, but it makes a very dull background