Average gray

Photo Display Background
I think Ansel Adams wrote somewhere in his trilogy, probably in the Print, that the optimum background for displaying mounted prints is a wall painted in matte average gray (the shade of a gray exposure card). When my family and I built our house we decided to paint one of the walls in our living room in this color. And watching the final result I am tempted to agree with Master Adams. In a proper lighting the gray background nicely lets all the shades of each print out in a beautiful way without distraction. The highlights appear really white and the deepest shadows really black. In the natural color system (the s version) the color of the paint that was used is NCS-S 5500 N which was the closest match in the system for my Sekonic gray card. Since I got kids at home I went for the most matte surface (7) that I still can wipe off without ruining the surface.