The Black and White of Photography

I read about an interesting experiment on the ArtFire forums this week.  The ArtFire management team asked some of the ArtFire mavens (long time sellers who help out other sellers and management) to test their photos.  Specifically, they asked the mavens to photograph a number of their items on plain white backgrounds and list them on their ArtFire Studios.  These same items were also in their studios with the sellers' preferred backgrounds - black, on rocks, colored paper, or whatever they usually use.  Artists generally prefer a black or dark grey gradient background, as we've been trained by show juries and our trade magazines that that is the most professional way to display our work.  Some prefer rocks, wood, or other natural backgrounds.  I've tried all of these in my search for the perfect photo.

For two months the sellers kept track of the views of each of these items, trying to see which backgound produced the most "click throughs".  At the end of the two months the found that the white background produced far more results than any other.  More than twice as many.  It didn't seem to matter what the product was, people clicked on the photo with the white background two to three times more often than the one with the black or "artistic" background.

What do you think?  Which photos make your clicking finger itchy?

                                                     

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What about this one?

You can follow the discussion about this topic on the ArtFire forums here.

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