Thanks for the replies. I left out some information in trying to make the post less complicated. I am looking for a simple, kind of one button solution that is a no brainer. The badges come in every few months and I only want to add simple items to my processing list.
Nemophoto: I did start with a gray card on this project but it was left behind in trying to make the gold badges 'pop' properly. The WB eyedropper tool works fine on my white background to achieve a neutral image.
jrsforums: the adjustment brush seems overly complicated, as I want a universal, whole photo solution (trying to make the work simpler). I did try the reduce saturation previously but when it starts to have a good effect, it looks like a b&w image. It is necessary for the badge to look rich and have some depth of color and that means at least normal color space.
Mr. Schewe: had a hard time locating the rgb curves (in spite of having LuLa's LR3 & LR4 videos), as I had the other panel visible and just didn't realize that the button was a button. So I found them, but I am a CMYK guy and rgb curves are a bit strange to me. While curves are very powerful, they do need quite a bit of finesse. Opening the B curve seemed to do what I needed but it seemed to effect the temp slider. I would rather have a temp slider value of 4300 than a 'b' curve, as the numerical value is a lot easier to remember and re-instate than a curve if thing get messed up.
Petrus: In spite of have the WB eyedropper sitting plain as day next to the temp slider it wasn't on my radar. I have had so-so results with WB eyedroppers over the many years, some work better than others. The one in LR works quite well, when I click on the background, I get a even neutral light gray, but the badge is still yellowish. If I use the WB eyedropper on the badge it becomes a very neutral gray and this is wrong too. For my purposes, I need the CMYK values of the Badges to be in the C12, M10, Y8, K0 range, to get the silver badges to look like a great silver.
So I have found out some more useful info on LR and can get a very flat neutral with the WB eyedropper. I know where the rgb curves are, if ever I need them. For my purposes, getting a great looking silver on the badges using the TEMP slider and pushing in to the cooler numbers (past neutral) will be best for the silver badges.
Thanks, Brian