A digital camera records
the white balance at the time of exposure as metadata, which you
can see when you open the file in the Camera Raw dialog box. This setting
usually yields the correct color temperature. You can adjust it
if the white balance is not quite right.
The Adjust tab in the Photoshop Camera Raw dialog box includes
the following three controls for correcting a color cast in your
image:
- White Balance
-
Sets the color balance of the image to reflect the lighting
conditions under which the photo was taken. In some cases, choosing
a white balance from the White Balance menu provides satisfactory
results. In many cases, you may want to customize the white balance
using the Temperature and Tint adjustments.
Note: The Camera
Raw plug‑in can read the white balance settings of some cameras. Leave
White Balance set to As Shot to use the camera’s white balance settings.
For cameras whose white balance settings are not recognized, selecting
As Shot is the same as choosing Auto: the Camera Raw plug‑in reads
the image data and automatically adjusts the white balance.
- Temperature
-
Fine-tunes the white balance to a custom color temperature.
Set the color temperature using the Kelvin color temperature scale.
Move the slider to the left to correct a photo taken at a lower
color temperature of light: the plug‑in makes the image colors cooler
(bluish) to compensate for the lower color temperature (yellowish)
of the ambient light. Conversely, move the slider to the right to
correct a photo taken at a higher color temperature of light: the plug‑in makes
the image colors warmer (yellowish) to compensate for the higher
color temperature (bluish) of the ambient light.

Correcting the white balance
- A.
- Moving the Temperature slider to the right corrects
a photo taken at a higher color temperature of light.
- B.
- Moving
the Temperature slider to the left corrects a photo taken at a lower
color temperature of light.
- C.
- Photo
after the color temperature has been adjusted.
- Tint
-
Fine-tunes the white balance to compensate for a green or
magenta tint. Move the slider to the left (negative values) to add
green to the photo; move it to the right (positive values) to add
magenta.

To adjust the white balance quickly,
select the White Balance tool, and then click an area in the preview
image that should be a neutral gray or white. The Temperature and
Tint sliders automatically adjust to make the selected
color exactly neutral (if possible). If you’re clicking
whites, choose a highlight area that contains significant white
detail rather than a specular highlight.

Using White Balance to click a neutral white area, and resulting
correction