Students who have decided to study photography at the post secondary level (college or university) should sign up for the
Alamy Student Scheme and begin to get a realistic idea of the value of their work in the marketplace. Alamy can help the student learn what customer’s want.
It costs nothing to participate in the program. The photographers simply uploads images he or she thinks that someone might want to buy. Alamy makes the student’s images available alongside the 86 million+ images in its collection that its worldwide network of customers reviews every day. If any of the images are licensed within the first two years after the photographer registers for the program the photographers receives 100% of the license fee paid to Alamy. (After the two years the images will continue to be available for licensing, but from then on Alamy takes its standard 50% marketing cut and pay the remaining 50% of the license fee to the image creator.)
Currently, almost 2,500 students participate in the program. Some earn several thousand dollars during their two years in the program. A significant number don’t make any sales while others earn very low amounts. At the very least, participating gives the student a realistic idea of the commercial value of the work he or she is creating.
I have argued in a
previous story that, given the cost of higher education today, studying photography at the university level with an eye to a career in that field may not be a good idea. On the other hand, if while studying photography the student can get some idea of what is needed to earn money from their passion, and market realities, that will certainly be beneficial. If you’re going to be producing images for your course work, why not try to earn some money from those images as well?
In addition, many photography students go on to work on the buyer side of the business, so getting educated in the stock business can be really beneficial.
Alamy’s James Allsworth has written a
blog post that is also worth reading, if you’ve decided to study photography.