Real estate photography can create difficult situations in regards to white balance. When shooting real estate you will encounter multiple light sources in almost every photograph you take which can confuse your camera and cause improper white balance. There will be sunlight pouring in through the windows (sometimes filtered and cooled by clouds), incandescent light bulbs (casting yellow light), fluorescent light bulbs (casting green light), your camera flash (generally casting white light), and a room painted red/yellow/blue...who knows!

White balance is the action that removes incorrect color from photographs. The final result of proper white balance should make white objects in a photograph appear white. An improper white balance will result in a photograph with incorrect colors.

Correcting the white balance while taking a photograph requires an understanding of color temperature. Color temperature has been related to units of Kelvin in relative intensity to a black object...Confused?

What is important about the units of measure is that the basic "right" white can be found at 5000K or 5000 Kelvin. If you take a look at your digital camera there are two general scales that can be found for white balance. More advanced DSLR cameras will have actual 64-bit color panels to choose white balance filters from.

In the "old days," or pre-digital days, we had to apply color/temperature filters in front of our lenses to get the proper white balance in our photographs. Professional digital photographers still apply gels of different temperatures to their lights in order to add or subtract casts of color from their photographs.

If the color of your photograph does not look "right" in the back of the camera it is time to adjust the white balance. Generally auto white balance will compromise with the colors in your photograph and result in dull colors.

Finally, If your camera shoots in RAW...then shoot in RAW. It is always best to get it right in the camera, but when shooting in RAW you can adjust your white balance while downloading your images and get a redo in regards to your white balance. There are other techniques that pros use, including using 18% gray as a white balance reference, but start by experimenting and picking techniques that make your colors bright, vibrant, and true.