Described here are systems and methods for generating projection angiograms with enhanced background suppression. Images are acquired with an MRI system at different echo times (e.g., a first and second echo time) in a given repetition time period. A mask image is generated based on the images, such as by computing a difference between the images. The mask image is scaled by different scale factors computed based on the different images. The scale factors are computed based on a ratio of a selected tissue signal (e.g., fat signal) in each image and the mask image. The scaled mask images are subtracted from the respective images and a projection angiograms are produced from these processed images.