The ability to control white balance while shooting is another thing that gives digital photographers an advantage over film photographers. Like the ability to switch ISO on the fly, the ability to adjust white balance from photo to photo adds a tremendous convenience to digital photography. Additionally, if you shoot in the raw file format, you can choose white balance after the fact, when you are processing your images on the computer. This gives you even more flexibility when it comes to dealing with color casts. In fact, most photographers who shoot raw don't even think about white balance while shooting, because they know they can adjust it later.

If you're an ex-film photographer, you might find it easier to think of white balance in the same way you'd think of filters. When shooting an indoor scene lit by tungsten light, slide-film photographers must use special film or special corrective filters. If not, the images will come back from the photo lab with a color cast. With print-negative film, there's generally less concern about this because the lab will balance the colors for you. Most labs fix color casts when developing negative film or printing pictures. But with slide or digital photography, you need to either use a filter or set your white balance to capture the balance accurately in the first place.