I remember reading in one of Ansel Adam’s books that he was only truly happy about one of his exhibitions because the walls were painted olive.
Adams reasoning was that olive is close to mid-grey, and if one wishes to evaluate the true blacks and whites of one’s prints, then putting them on a mid-grey background allows the eye to have a reference point. I paraphrase Adam’s words. I may have got some of the detail wrong, but I think I got the essence of what he was saying correct.
I often find when putting hi key images against mid-grey, I am able to discern the off white colours more easily. Similarly, the blacks in prints convey the correct depth. Plus any intended colour cast in the blacks is more evident against a grey background. The eye needs a neutral tone with which to reference against.
On a slight side note: I sometimes spend a lot of time hue-shifting the blacks and whites in my images. Black is not always black and I find that sometimes blacks with some blue or magenta in them can convey more depth. Similarly, snow is not white, it comes in all varying shifts in hue as the colour temperature changes throughout the day. I often spend a lot of time tuning the hues of the whites in my work.
I am often told that my images are just white, and they do not have any colour to them. Colour awareness varies greatly from person to person. But you can kill any subtleties in your work if the surrounding colours are too strong.
This is why I have changed the background colour of this very website. I felt that the black background was causing myself and I am sure many others, to be unable to discern the more subtle colour casts in the shadows and highlights of my photography.
Fact of the matter is, that adjacent colour affects our perception of a colour we are looking at. Which can be nicely illustrated in the picture of a bowler hat below. The yellow square (right side of the hat) and the brown square (left side of the hat) are actually the same colour. If you don’t believe me, then I urge you to load the image into Photoshop and copy the yellow square on the right and drag it over the brown square. You will see it transform before your eyes as you drag it across.
So, depending on the background colour of your website, your images may be interpreted very differently. As I think mine were. Folks were not noticing the subtle colours in the highlights because the black surrounding was far too dominant.
If you have the time, and wish to go back to my galleries, you may find that you can see colours and nuances that were not obvious when this website’s background colour was black.
And if you still think my images are ‘just white’, then I am afraid I cannot help you ;-)