The effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI) on X-ray image data is corrected by characterizing the EMI and processing the image data to subtract the EMI effects from the image data. The X-ray image data, along with offset data, are collected in a conventional manner, affected by EMI if present, and EMI-characterizing data is immediately collected thereafter by disabling rows of a digital detector (FET off). The EMI-characterizing data, then, is not affected by the presence of image data, and can be used to characterize the amplitude and frequency of the EMI. The EMI-characterizing data is assured of being in phase with the collected image and offset data due to its collection in the same image acquisition sequence immediately following the collection of image and offset data. Artifacts due to the presence of EMI are thus eliminated from reconstructed images based upon the corrected data.