Shooting Money
These days I am constantly looking for ways to increase my photography assignments. Whenever I see photos being used around the office I try to see if it’s something that I could do, and if possible I try to convince the designer to hire me to shoot what they’ve comped up before they purchase it from Getty or Corbis. Most of the time they’re buying royalty free images, which are cheaper and easier to just purchase, but if they’re using a rights-managed image, I have a chance of saving them some money.
I was walking past one of the work tables in my office this afternoon and happened to see a set of publications that another designer in my office was working on. It featured a still life photo of U.S. currency pinned to a clothesline, dripping with water. Apparently it was a image was meant to depict money laundering. I gave a quick pitch to my boss about the possibility of me shooting final, but it turns out they’d already paid for the image.
We did get in a conversation about what it would entail if I did do the shot. One of the issues with the existing shot is that the money was very soft focus, with a very short depth of field, and the back light used was too bright, and made the ink on the backsides of the bills show through and blend in with the front side of the bills, which made the image blurry and sloppy looking. My boss suggested it had to do with the reproduction restrictions on U.S. currency. This got me thinking that I didn’t know what those restrictions are, so I looked up on the internets.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, here are the rules:
Reproduction of Currency
Authority: The Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550
Color Reproductions
Section 411 of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations permits the printing, publishing or importation, or the making or importation of the necessary plates or items for such printing or publication, of color illustrations of U.S. currency provided that:
1. The illustration must be of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of any matter so illustrated;
2. The illustration must be one sided; and
3. All negatives, plates, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices, and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof shall be destroyed and or deleted or erased after their final use in accordance with this section.
Black and White Reproductions
Title 18, United States Code, Section 504 permits black and white reproductions of currency and other obligations, provided such reproductions meet the size requirement.
Gotta love government clarification. So does “illustration” including photography? And what is item #3 all about? Especially when thinking about digital photography. Am I expected to delete my digital photos and erase them from my backup drives after publication?
If anyone figures this one out, lemme know.
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