The Basic Knowledge about the White Balance

Understand what white balance is and how it affects your digital camera's picture will help you a lot to photograph a more desirable photo. Most cameras have a white balance control, and will have all or some of the following settings:

Automatic white balance	The camera will analyse the image and set the white balance automatically.
Daylight	This is for shooting in direct sunlight.
Cloudy light	The light on an overcast day is somewhat cooler (bluer) than it is in direct sunlight, so this setting compensates by warming the photograph.
Shade	Subjects in shady areas will be slightly bluer than daylight, so this setting compensates by warming the colours even more. You can also use this setting to get warm colours even in daylight.
Flash	Flash light is slightly cooler than daylight, using this setting will warm the picture a tiny bit compared to the "Daylight" setting. This only applies for situations in which the flash is the sole source of lighting.
Tungsten	Light from tungsten bulbs is substantially more orange than daylight, so the camera compensates by adding blue to the picture.
Fluorescent light	Fluorescent lamps are somewhat redder than daylight (less so than tungsten bulbs, however), so this setting will compensate by cooling the picture.
Preset white balance	This is often the only way of getting good results under "energy saving" lighting. It can often get more accurate results under artificial lighting than the white balance settings dedicated to that kind of lighting.
Manual white balance	This allows you to specify a color temperature for which to correct.

Setting this differs from camera to camera, so read your manual. Some compact cameras lack white balance settings entirely and put them as scene modes. You'll have to figure out the effects yourself. A "Foliage" mode will typically bias the colors towards green, "Sunset" will make them warm, and “Fall Foliage" will also warm the picture.

 Left to right: automatic, tungsten and preset white balance settings. The preset setting has much more accurate colors.