If you're looking to market your images to editorial customers, like book publishers and magazines, it's worth paying attention to the concept of 'copy space' (or copyspace) for your image compositions.

Simply put, copy space refers to an area of your photo, usually a solid block of colour or texture, that is ideally suited to overlay text. For example, an image chosen for a book cover may have copy space at the top of the image, where the book's title could clearly be placed. In editorial feature like a newspaper column, an image may be used to illustrate the copy, but some of that copy would likely be placed over the image. This is especially popular for DPS (double page spread) features.

Providing space for copy in your image compositions is a really simple way to maximise the sales potential of your shots. And adding copy space doesn't need to compromise the quality of your framing and compositions, far from it.

Here are some beautiful examples to show you how it can be done:

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Editor's tip:

If you're uploading your images to a marketplace setting where you're tagging (or keywording) your images. Make sure you include 'copy space' and 'copyspace'. Editorial customers often use these keywords when searching for images.