The White Balance setting you choose will change the colour balance in your pictures, making it warmer or cooler depending on how the sort of light you’re shooting in affects things.

Using Auto White Balance is the simple option, but your camera’s White Balance presets give you more control over colour.

In this tutorial we’ll explain exactly how these work and how to fine-tune your white balance settings to ensure the most accurate colours possible.

You may have spotted the lightbulb, cloud, electricity and woodshed symbols on your camera’s screen or menus. You may have also ignored them as being yet another degree of complexity that you don’t need to know about.

Alternatively, you may have seen people on the Internet earnestly discussing colour temperature and swearing by all sorts of essential products that will guarantee perfect results, if you re-mortgage your house this one last time. And ignored it as another expense that you can probably do without.

Well that thing you’re ignoring is one of the most powerful ways of making your photos convey the scene you wanted to capture: white balance.