diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 09ecddd..58bf9c9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ and it's typically 4x faster than using the quickest ImageMagick and GraphicsMag
 
 If you're looking for an HTTP based image processing solution, see [imaginary](https://github.com/h2non/imaginary). 
 
-bimg was heavily inspired in [sharp](https://github.com/lovell/sharp), its homologous package built for [node.js](http://nodejs.org).
+bimg was heavily inspired in [sharp](https://github.com/lovell/sharp), its homologous package built for [node.js](http://nodejs.org). bimg is used in production environments for more than a year processing thousands of images per day. 
 
 **v1 notice**: `bimg` introduces some minor breaking changes in `v1` release. 
 If you're using `gopkg.in`, you can still rely in the `v0` without worrying about breaking changes.
diff --git a/vips.go b/vips.go
index f63c8a6..6b74199 100644
--- a/vips.go
+++ b/vips.go
@@ -274,14 +274,15 @@ func vipsFlattenBackground(image *C.VipsImage, background Color) (*C.VipsImage,
 		C.double(background.B),
 	}
 
-	err := C.vips_flatten_background_brigde(image, &outImage, (*C.double)(&backgroundC[0]))
-	if int(err) != 0 {
-		return nil, catchVipsError()
+	if vipsHasAlpha(image) {
+		err := C.vips_flatten_background_brigde(image, &outImage, (*C.double)(&backgroundC[0]))
+		if int(err) != 0 {
+			return nil, catchVipsError()
+		}
+		C.g_object_unref(C.gpointer(image))
+		image = outImage
 	}
 
-	C.g_object_unref(C.gpointer(image))
-	image = outImage
-
 	return image, nil
 }
 
@@ -317,7 +318,12 @@ func vipsSave(image *C.VipsImage, o vipsSaveOptions) ([]byte, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	defer C.g_object_unref(C.gpointer(tmpImage))
+	//When an image has an unsupported color space, vipsPreSave returns the pointer of the image passed to it unmodified.
+	//When this occurs, we must take care to not dereference the original image a second time;
+	//we may otherwise erroneously free the object twice
+	if tmpImage != image {
+		defer C.g_object_unref(C.gpointer(tmpImage))
+	}
 
 	length := C.size_t(0)
 	saveErr := C.int(0)