Digital BW, The Print

Folks:  I frequently encounter shadow noise in my scans. I can 
usually work around it, but I'm wondering if there is something I can 
do--perhaps while scanning--to minimize it.

Have a look at this:
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/temp/noise.jpg

This picture was taken with an M6TTL and CV 50/1.5 Nokton, on Kodak 
T400CN rated 400.  It was taken in a dim reception hall, but the 
subjects were illuminated by a shaft of light from some nearby large 
windows, and I exposed for them, not the background.  The scanner is 
a Canon FS-4000, run at 4000 dpi and driven by VueScan.  I scan to 16 
bit TIFF, and use Picture Window Pro in 16 bit mode for my editing.  
The various versions of the picture are shown at 1/3 actual pixels.

The leftmost image is of the scan pretty much out of the scanner (I'd 
spotted and cropped, but that's all).  You can see the noise in the 
darkest areas.  This is the kind of noise I am often plagued with.  
It tends to happen more often in available light pictures than well-
lit outdoor shots.  It doesn't show much on a 5x7 quadtone print, but 
is quite prominent on an 8x10.  And if I get the same picture printed 
in a wet darkroom, the noise isn't there. 

The center image is what I ended up with after curves, contrast, and 
sharpening (the latter using a mask so only the people were 
sharpened, not the surrounding area.  I've dropped the background to 
nearly jet-black, but there are still lots of noise speckles.  And 
I've lost some gradation in the girl's hair.

The righthand image has been noise-filtered with NeatImage before 
curves, etc.  I used it sparingly so it wouldn't soften 
or "plasticize" the image too much.  It's helped, but the noise still 
shows up--more in a print that on the screen.  I've found that most 
of the time, when I use NeatImage or Picture Window's Despeckle 
feature, I can only get rid of some of the noise before the image 
gets messed up.

What might I try to get rid of this noise?  Is there anything can I 
do to minimize it during the scan?  I've tried the multiple exposure 
feature in VueScan, and it doesn't really help with this type of 
noise.  

BTW, here's the whole picture.  This one is a reduction of the Costco 
CD Jpeg I got when the film was developed.  They went way dark, so 
you see no shadow noise (or detail).  
http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/JonAntionWedding/Show/JonAntionWedding
/slide_13.jpg

Thanks,
--Peter Klein
Seattle, WA