Trying to make the jump from JPEG to RAW...

Question

Hi all, I'm trying to make the jump from JPEG to RAW, and am hoping you might be able to help with a few questions.
When I open JPEGs in Lightroom's Develop module, the settings are mostly zero by default. But when I open RAW files, some of the settings seem to have non-zero default to values.
Am I correct to think these settings are from metadata saved into the RAW file when I took the picture? eg, the camera saves the White Balance settings as metadata within the RAW file, even though the White Balance settings don't actually affect the image data itself. And so when I open that RAW file in Lightroom, it'll apply the White Balance as recorded within the file, making that a non-zero default.
Is that about right?
Does Lightroom similarly 'pre-set' other values when importing RAW files? (I ask because I seem to have non-zero settings for Blacks, Sharpening, as well as the Color slider under Noise Reduction.)
Meaning: I'm not quite sure "how much work" Lightroom is doing by default when I import RAW files, and how much I need to do to at least reproduce what my camera would do in making a JPEG.
For example, even though Color under Noise Reduction is given a value -- Luminance, also under under Noise Reduction, is left at zero. And the picture looks a bit grainy. Would my camera have processed some Luminance Noise Reduction? If so, is there a way to get Lightroom to help get that pre-set too?
Basically, is there a rule of thumb for how a novice should import a RAW file and have it reasonably "at least as good" as what the JPEG would have been?
Thanks very kindly, -Scott

Answer 1

Given that the camera ships with so many special effect presets -- is there no built-in preset that could be named "Auto Camera" so to speak? Or might it be possible import such a preset that somebody else has made?
Lightroom, nor any other third party raw processing program will not read the camera settings beyond simple stuff such as white balance. So you cannot do this. If you go raw, you really have to change your mindset and completely ignore the in-camera jpeg styles. Just set it to a neutral style and learn what the preview on the camera means for the actual raw data. You will find that this gives you orders of magnitude more creative freedom afterwards as you will not be stuck with a burned in interpretation.
So (for me) even just making my own presets -- let alone making separate presets for every ISO -- all that seems a bit daunting.
There really is no need to at all. I don't use presets for example. I think they are a waste of time as it is extremely rare that two images need exactly the same treatment. You really are just choosing a different starting point. I start all my raw at a relatively neutral setting (but using a camera profile generated from a colorchecker!) and blast through a shoot very quickly. You'll learn how to recognize what modifications to the Develop settings images need and just do it. Then typically I use auto-sync or manual sync to modify similar shots (say a series of head shots taken shortly after each other). I work differently as most of my photography is landscape, but a typical workflow for many photographers that do more people/style/event stuff is to import all the raw and start culling them with pick/reject flags and refine collection. You'll arrive at a subset that is worth looking  at more closely and to finetune their development. The conservative default rendering helps you here because you'll quickly see what images are simply badly exposed, not in correct focus, etc. and you can reject them.
Think of your raw as the unprinted negative. It represents a nascent image. One that still has to form completely. A jpeg is like a polaroid. The image style is pretty much chosen for you by the film maker. There is very little you can do to it afterwards without it breaking down. Raw gives you much more freedom but it does come with a learning curve and it is more tasking for your equipment. Many people including many pros are simply not interested (or don't see the pay off) in this part of the creative photographic process and just shoot jpeg, which is a fine approach (just not mine). Lightroom can help you there too to quickly find the best images in a series, keyword, caption, and disseminate.