White balance is a critical aspect of photography that aims to reproduce the colors in an image as accurately as possible, particularly in terms of white areas. When the white balance is off, images can appear too cool (blue) or too warm (yellow/orange). Adjusting the white balance allows you to capture images that truly represent the colors as they appear in real life. This adjustment can be done manually using presets or by setting a custom value based on the lighting conditions of the scene.