White balance in photography is the process of adjusting the color temperature of light sources (for example sun and flash) in your image. Most light sources do not emit a natural white color which can cause unattractive blue, orange, or green color casts dominating your image.
The goal of adjusting white balance is to change the ‘color temperature’ so that it appears as natural white.
Color Temperature refers to the relative warmth or coolness of light and is typically recorded in Kelvin. In addition to most digital cameras, our eyes are extremely good at removing color casts under different light sources and for that reason, white objects look natural white to our eyes.
Most digital cameras have an auto white balance (AWB) option which will work under normal or standard circumstances, but for the best result, it will be much better to choose a fixed or custom white balance setting. Most camera settings offer various fixed color temperature settings like ‘daylight’, ‘cloudy’, ‘shade’ and ‘flash’. The more advanced cameras also offer a custom setting.
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