A system for white balancing images using facial color as a reference signal is provided. The system includes a face detector that is operable to receive a digital image and to detect a human face within the digital image. A skin tone extractor is operable to extract a skin tone from the digital image. The extracted skin tone is associated with a human face detected by the face detector. A skin tone comparator is operable to access reference skin tones and to compare the extracted skin tone to the reference skin tones in order to identify a reference skin tone corresponding to the extracted skin tone. A balance parameter generator is operable to generate a balance parameter based on the extracted skin tone and the corresponding reference skin tone. The balance parameter is operable to be applied to the digital image to white balance the digital image.