Achieving a good white balance in your photo will make all the difference in your final edit. And achieving a good white balance is pretty easy in Lightroom.
The white balance dropper is a wonderful tool in Lightroom. It is found at the top of the Basic Panel in the Develop Module. It gives you a good starting place for your white balance and sometimes gets it right on.
Using the White Balance Dropper
Click on the white balance dropper to select it. Your cursor will now be an eyedropper. To use it effectively, you'll need to find a neutral tone in your photo. To find a neutral tone, you can hover the eyedropper over different areas of your photo and the Navigator preview will show you what your photo will look like if you click there. Areas of your photo that are a gray, white or black (though not dark black) will work as a neutral tone. Once you find a tone that gives you a nice white balance, click there.
Fine Tuning Your White Balance
You may need to adjust your white balance a bit. Depending on the photo, you may get a nice white balance with one click. However, with many photos you may need to use your Temperature and Tint sliders in the Basic panel to adjust the white balance to get it just right.
If the Temperature and Tint sliders still aren't getting the white balance quite right, you may need to also adjust certain colors in the HSL Panel. This panel is located two panels below the Basic Panel.
Amy created this video that will help you see how the white balance dropper can help you get a nice white balance even in a photo where the white balance seems very off!
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