Filtering part of a frame using mask, layer and overlay

I found this still image from the movie Bladerunner that I want to use as a wallpaper. The problem is the still is filled with noise; so I did what I could to remove the noise but that left the face was over filtered. I spent the next 8 hours trying to figure out how to use masks, layers and overlays to cut out the head, filter the background, filter the head separately then recombine it back into one image. I've gotten pretty close but there are still nasty artifacts around the outside of the mask. Original Mask Script Code:

Well, maybe this is not really what you want, but if you want to do filtering with avisynth... how about creating 2 images. After filtering one, load both in photoshop (or gimp, or something...) and cut+overlay face from unfiltered image (using your mask or not) by just few clicks? IMHO such scripts for processing one image is way overkill... EDIT: by the way if your image originally was in RGB, you loosing much information by doing converttoyv12(). Also I don't see much point in ConvertToRGB32() after Imagesource()

What is so hard about using a mask? source = Source() mask = Source().ConvertToYV12(matrix="PC.601") filtered = source.Filter() head = source.Filter2() Overlay(filtered, head, mask=mask) I would recommend using a PC-range matrix when converting an image for processing. Another alternative would be to process each plane separately.

Right, having looked again at the Overlay documentation, I see how confusing it could be.