Each lightning source - a bulb, tubelight or the sun, for example - has a colour temprature.
The kind of light you get on a bright, clear day is a very high color temperature.
The kind of light you get in a room with an incandescent light is a lower color temperature. If you avoid mixing different kinds of light together in one photograph, it may make your photography easier. For cooler light you should warm up colour of your image and for warm colour light you should make your image colour cool.
This all can be done by adjusting White Balance settings.
The above images are taken in different White Balance mode in same light conditions (click on the images to enlarge).
1st one is taken in Fluorescent mode, 2nd in tungsten mode, 3rd in daylight mode, 4th in auto mode.
3rd image has more colour detail and is better than others. This is how white balance can make your images look good or bad.
White balance is a neglected option in the camera and most people unknowingly continue using Auto White Balance (AWB). AWB chooses a White Balance, which it thinks suits the scene. The camera gets it wrong a lot of times and photos then end up with the odd colour tint. Many a times you might have observed a yellowish colour or a bluish colour in your image, it is because of unsuitable White Balance. You can get awesome results by simply selecting the appropriate White Balance for the lightning you are in. Selecting from among the pre-defined profiles given with your camera, changes a lot of other unrelated settings.
Digital cameras provide many options to suit different conditions such as -
Auto - your camera will automatically adjust settings according to the light conditions (but it is not recommended)
Incandescent or tungsten - this mode is for indoor shooting such as under bulb or tubelight. It cools down the colour in images.
Fluorescent - it gives a bluish tinge to your photos and will warm up colours in your image.
Sunny or daylight - as from the name, it is for natural light conditions, it will warm up your image.
Cloudy - in place of daylight white balance you can use Cloudy also which will warm up your image slightly more than daylight.
Kelvin - in "kelvin" mode you can set the color temperature over a broad range.
Custom - it allows you to take a picture of a known gray reference under the same lighting, and then set that as the white balance for future photos.
Some cameras provide more White Balance options.
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