A diagnostic imaging system includes an x-ray source that emits a beam of x-ray energy toward an object to be imaged and an energy discriminating (ED) detector that receives the x-ray energy emitted by the x-ray energy source. The ED detector includes a first layer having a first thickness, wherein the first layer comprises a semiconductor configurable to operate in at least an integrating mode and a second layer having a second thickness greater than the first thickness, and configured to receive x-rays that pass through the first layer. The system further includes a data acquisition system (DAS) operably connected to the ED detector and a computer that is operably connected to the DAS. The computer is programmed to identify saturated data in the second layer and substitute the saturated data with non-saturated data from a corresponding pixel in the first layer.