I find presets to be a good way to not have to reinvent the wheel every time I want a specific look. Once I've created a look I like, I'll save it as a preset so I can use it as a starting point in the future. That's the key point though, they're only starting points. After applying the look I still do all the editing I would normally do as well.

I have been loving your landscapes on the photo a day, ontheropes. Those make a convincing argument for what you say.

I use them occasionally. I like to make virtual copies of sets of pics, and apply presets to the copies when I want an additional set with a generally different "look". (color/bw, high contrast, etc)

hmmm, well at the risk of appearing to be a philistine I do use Lightroom 4 presets.
However I don't just click one and that's it. I do find it a quick way to get some ideas of how it may look, sometimes this is OK and I stick with it, more often I will tweak it or move away completely and put more effort into it.
Occasionally I use one of the toning presets such as this image below has had the creamtone image applied, though I have spent a lot of time working with adjustment brushes etc.

I must admit to not being too skilled with B&W and should probably buy Nik Silver Efex and get to know it.

Well, don't look to me because I don't think you're missing out. I was basically agreeing with you. Even after applying a preset I tweak things, but it does give me a better starting place to work from. I don't see them as a reason to use lightroom—just a tool within it to make some things less repetitive because I can change a few common settings with a single click. I use descriptive (ridiculous?) names like "high-5 fill+10 black-3 NR+25" so I know what I'm changing.

To show just how ambivalent I am about these things, I still haven't changed my default import settings for my NEX-5N and I've owned the camera for over a year now. Part of that is because I'm not usually doing serious photos with it, but lightroom makes it so easy to change things that I have been happy enough with the default not to bother changing it.

Hi Jonny, nice to hear from you - hope your family is well.

Right - I see them as useful for the w/b, but syncing or pasting COULD be used instead, couldn't they?

Using them for noise reduction - that's the bit I don't get: Is there a standard ISO based noise reduction amount? I find it varies with the amount light and average tone of the subject.

When I got Lightroom, I thought they would become useful at some point, but as it stands, I'm pretty <meh> about them.

Maybe somebody here is going to educate me - my mind is open!

I don't use them much, Andrew. When I do it is for subtle things. I have one that sets the white balance for the fluorescent lights in my house because auto white balance gets it wrong. Another is my standard amount of noise reduction to apply for around ISO 800, another for around 1600, another for around 3200.

I still process photos individually.

I very seldom use presets but think they can be fun to dabble with from time to time. If I have an image that I think could be cool but I just can't get it interesting I sometimes turns to the presets and see what some of the funkier ones will do, thats about it for me.

Truth be had I have never seen presets as an extra complication at all as you can basically ignore them and go about editing your own way without even looking at that pane.

Well that is my view, but beeing an amateur I seldom have large batches of similar photos to process. And when I do get a series off photos to mess with I just use the sync option if needed.

This thread was prompted by reading the B&W thread that is current at the moment.

I know the thinking behind presets, but I've had LR since version 1 and I can't say that I have used - or am ever likely to use - presets in batch processing. In my experience (less than most perhaps but enough to write this) I think every image requires individual treatment to get the best out of it. I agree that (for example) a w/b error can easily be corrected using a preset, but pasting settings does that too and easier. As each shot one takes is the result of individual attempts by the camera to focus on what it sees, I see sharpening as specific to each frame too. Global sharpening can be done at export stage.

Even in the context of B&W conversion - most images will need individual attention IME.

I see people making a big deal of giving away their presets and even selling them. Many of these are the result of having sliders hard over for a particular look that one wouldn't really want on a whole batch of images.

I just think it is an unnecessary feature and adds an unnecessary extra complication to an excellent image editor.

Are your experiences really different to mine? What am I doing wrong?