A system and a method are disclosed that determine placement of a background image on a canvas and area for placement of foreground images. A system and method include receiving data indicative of an informative zone of a background image and computing an estimated foreground area on a canvas for each candidate placement of the background image on the canvas. The estimated foreground area is computed based on the data indicative of the informative zone and the number of images to be used as foreground images and does not include the informative zone. One of the candidate placements is determined as a selected background placement based on the computed values of estimated foreground area. A composite image can be generated from the background image positioned on the canvas according to the selected background placement and foreground images positioned outside of the informative zone.