1. A method for obtaining a digital chest x-ray image of a patient, the method executed at least in part by a computer system, comprising: acquiring a standard dose radiographic image and a reduced dose radiographic image, wherein the standard dose radiographic image is obtained at a peak kilovoltage value that is at least 10 kVp lower than the reduced dose radiographic image; forming a bone-enhanced image by combining data from the standard dose and reduced dose radiographic images; segmenting bone structure from the bone-enhanced image; forming a processed image by suppressing bone contrast from the standard dose radiographic image according to the segmented bone structure; and displaying, storing, or transmitting the processed image.