What is "white balance", and how does it affect my digital camera's picture?

What is "white balance", and how does it affect my digital camera's picture?

Mark Comon (Vice President, Paul's Photo, Torrance, CA) gives expert video advice on: What is "white balance", and how does it affect my digital camera's picture?; What can I do if I shoot a digital picture on the wrong white balance setting?; How do I adjust my digital camera's white balance? and more...

White balance is one of the cool new features on digital cameras that allows you to adjust the color of the picture. In the film days we used to buy different films for shooting under different light; bright light, sunny light, cloudy light, indoor light. On a digital camera we have a setting - white balance. White balance is generally set to automatic on the camera. You can also set it manually for tungsten light, fluorescent light; sun light, cloudy light, flash light and thereby adjust the color to get the color of the picture exactly the way that you wanted.