Hello Pushkar, I think the peak value of the first derivative and the zero value of the second derivative does the same thing. My sec deriv is very noisy so it's easy for my to pick the peak value of the 1st deriv instead. I would suggest you to watch the video from Bruce which explained HOW TO PICK Rbkg at: http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Beamlines/Spectroscopy/Techniques/XAS.html Click the Athena: Data processing II Actually all the other video lectures are very helpful, too! Best, Ke