White Balance

Describe the steps for adjusting the white balance on a camcorder or digital film camera.

1. If your camera has a filter wheel, make sure you are using the correct filter for the lighting conditions.
2. Point your camera to a pure white subject, so that most of what you're seeing in the viewfinder is white. Opinions vary on just how much white needs to be in the frame (about 50-80% of the frame should be fine, Sony recommends 80% of frame width). The subject should be fairly matte so there's no room for error with reflections.
3. Set your exposure and focus.
4. Activate the white balance by pressing the button or throwing the switch. The camera may take a few seconds to complete the operation, after which you should get a message (or icon) in the viewfinder.
   Hopefully this will be telling you that the white balance has succeeded (the camera will retain it's current color balance until another white balance is performed.)
   If the viewfinder message is that the white balance has failed (color temperature too high). Changing filters would be a sensible fix for this.

Describe the steps for adjusting the manual white balance on a DSLR?

1-You will need a neutral target in order to set a proper custom white balance. Basically you are telling your camera, "Here this is a neutral target, base all color rendition off of this." (using a white piece of paper is a good tip)

2- Set your camera to Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Manual if you are comfortable enough.  Getting a proper exposure of your target is critical. 

3- Changing the settings in the menus under "custom white balance" or just "white balance" can help you achieve the exposure and color temp you are aiming for.

4- Don't forget even though you have told your camera to measure a custom white balance, you need to SET your camera's white balance to "Custom/Preset"