A system and method to reduce bright burn in images, such as x-ray images. The reduction of bright burn may be accomplished by processing a received raw image to obtain a grey-value histogram. The raw image may be divided into a plurality of regions of interest, and an average signal of each region of interest is calculated. Regions of interest are identified as bright burn candidates based on a predetermined function of the average signal of each region of interest and the grey-value histogram of the entire raw image. The regions of interest may be analyzed for local connectivity to estimate bright burn areas. An image with reduced bright burn is generated by either automatically adjusting a physical wedge filter position based on the bright burn areas, or by adaptively reducing a signal level of the bright burn areas.