neat image and selected noise reduction!

[philbyuk]

is it possible to use neat image to apply noise reduction just on part of a photo?
ive got a picture of a bird and the background contains quite a lot of noise that i would like to remove but leave the bird alone as this softens the feathers too much!

i tried selecting the background but it still applied n/reduction to the bird as well, how do i use noise reduction on just the background??

 

[TheRedUn]

Make a selection of the background, paste it on to a new layer above the original, then apply the filter to the new layer?

 

[Janice]

Could you not put a gaussian blur on the background on a new layer...then erase it off the bird?

 

[philbyuk]

thanks ill give that a shot ltr. great places to learn here