Nginx Exclude certain folder from 404 redirect for pictures

Code:

location ~* \.(png|jpg|jpeg|gif) {
    try_files $uri $uri/ @noimage;
}
location @noimage {
    rewrite ^ /404.gif;
}

I have been using this to redirect to a 404 image under an image not being found but would anyone know how to exclude a certain tree from this such as website.com/lel/

 

so

Code:

location ~* /lel{

}

Should work? will that work for subfolders or only this folder?