Studio walls question

hey yall,

well i have a question. The walls in my studio are painted white and I'm not really happy with that, as it seems that too much stray light is coming back and forth (like a reflector on each side of the room). Anyhoo, I was thinking about painting the walls greyish, which would take away some of the stray light I guess. Now is that a good decision? Which grey should I use? A dark one I suppose...?!

Cheers,
Matt

This is only my opinon but i think that unless you really need to have absolute control over reflected light spoiling your shots white or gray will make very little diffrence and i think white is better in a studio as it gives a bit of fill that is often needed anyway.
Black bounce boards can be made easyly for when reflected light gets in the way and just put up when wanted.
for control a studio should be black but thats not the best enviroment to work in.
Rob.

Rob, great points. I was thinking along the same lines, but some black linen pinned to the wall would be another cost-effective solution that allows for flexibility.

yeah i havent thought about that.. great advice, thanks man !

White walls are very undesirable and return quite a bit of light. Something neutral like middle gray makes a big difference. If you want some light to be reflected and returned then it should be controlled light, not light that bounces around on its own with little to no control over it.
If you look at some other threads that cover this same topic you'll find that the recommendation is gray.