Need some Exposure help

^ What he said. I have also quit using NeatImage. Look at that second pic, it looks smeared. What I do now is to use the Blur tool set at about 8% hardness and make it big so you can swipe the whole image a couple times, after you resize for final use. Then use a little USM in it and it will sharpen it right back up without the noise.

Was that underexposed then boosed in post processing? I don't start to see noise like that from my 30D until ISO 800+ with properly exposed images.

I took a look at one of my shots at iso 500, while there is some noise it's not nearly as pronounced as what your image is showing. Here's an unprocessed 100% crop.

One thing that could add to the noise is sharpening. You could try some selective sharpening, or try canonloader's method of smoothing out the noise then sharpening.

Thanks all for the replies. Sorry it took so long to get back. Darn job... The neat image did make quite the improvement. However, I am trying to get the shot right in the first place. I noticed a new post on exposure I'll be sure to check out very shortly. I do shoot in raw mode for birds. The exposure was boosted by .60 in CS2. If I clicked the auto, (which I hate) it boosted exposure by 1.80. The noise really popped out. It was a challenging shot. At least for me. Evening, in the shade. Otherwise I would have the 400 f/5.6 on. What a light monster. Thanks again folks. I'll try suggestions and hope to have some new shots this weekend.