diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index fa14a8a8..09fa4100 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -455,8 +455,6 @@ fn optimize_png(
     opts: &Options,
     deadline: Arc<Deadline>,
 ) -> PngResult<Vec<u8>> {
-    let original_png = png.clone();
-
     // Print png info
     let file_original_size = original_data.len();
     let idat_original_size = png.idat_data.len();
@@ -481,6 +479,10 @@ fn optimize_png(
     info!("    IDAT size = {} bytes", idat_original_size);
     info!("    File size = {} bytes", file_original_size);
 
+    // Do this first so that reductions can ignore certain chunks such as bKGD
+    perform_strip(png, opts);
+    let stripped_png = png.clone();
+
     // Must use normal (lazy) compression, as faster ones (greedy) are not representative
     let eval_compression = 5;
     let eval_filters = indexset! {RowFilter::None, RowFilter::MinSum};
@@ -592,14 +594,12 @@ fn optimize_png(
                 png.idat_data.len()
             );
         } else if eval_filter.is_some() {
-            *png = original_png;
+            *png = stripped_png;
         }
     } else if png.idat_data.len() >= idat_original_size {
-        *png = original_png;
+        *png = stripped_png;
     }
 
-    perform_strip(png, opts);
-
     let output = png.output();
 
     if idat_original_size >= png.idat_data.len() {