A technical definition is "a setting that compensates for the differences in color temperature of the surrounding light". (these technical definitions have made me laugh all week)
In English, it's a feature that defines what the color white looks like in specific lighting conditions, which impacts the appearance of all other colors. The wrong white balance setting can have an amusing impact on your pictures. Have your pictures ever been:
1) Too blue? (raising my own hand)
2) Too brown/beige? (raising my own hand)
3) Too gold/yellow? (raising both hands)
The first happens when it's a normal day, and you accidentally have your white balance setting to Tungsten or Fluorescent. The second happens when it's a normal day, and your setting is Cloudy or Shade. The third scenario, the most common, is when you are indoors and you have the setting on AWB, the default. There are many other combinations of mishaps, but these seem fairly common. The rule of thumb is, if your picture is too "warm" or too "cool", you need to fix your white balance settings.
You may ask, so AWB isn't good enough? Isn't the camera smart enough? The answer is, only if it's a nice and reasonably sunny day.
Otherwise, I recommend you take the time to modify the settings according to your surroundings. They're self-explanatory, fortunately, except for Tungsten, which basically means indoors with the lights on. Shade is shade, Daylight is daylight, etc. As for Custom, I've never used it, but it involves using a white piece of paper to customize the setting. The camera knows what to do with the other colors. I've never used it.
What about RAW files? If you're shooting in RAW, sure, it's easy to correct, but for everyone else, it's a hassle to fix. At the same time, I'm a fan of getting it right the first time, like I did here (white balance setting - Daylight):
The results are worth the effort, trust me!
Till tomorrow!
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