<p>My D did her headshots last fall for her college auditions and she actually bought these instead of her senior pictures!</p>
<p>D has two poses that are close up head with some shoulders. She wore a dark solid color and has one picture smiling with teeth and the other smiling without teeth. Both of the photos were retouched by the headshot photographer and she has the jpegs for them that she can make copies from.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is trend along the aspects that you mention:
smiling/serious, head/body, horizontal/vertical
All those things work. </p>
<p>In my opinion, it is nice to have TWO headshots. Then, you can have one smiling, one not, one close up of the head, one showing a little more, one horizontal and one vertical! I would not do a full body shot for theater. My D has two current headshots and both are in color. One is horizontal and one is vertical. One is smiling and the other less so. One is head and shoulders and one is waist and up. </p>
<p>Have the photo shoot include several different clothing choices. Solids are good but there are exceptions. Nothing too busy. Focus should not be on the clothing and more should be on the face. Choose colors and outfits that are best for the person and also some variety of looks. When you have two headshots, you can have two different looks and submit them for various things depending on the roles. We used head shots as senior portraits as well.</p>
<p>Although we have not spent a significant amount of time looking at every school’s website for audition requirements, those that we have seen only say to submit a photo/headshot, but do not reference size of the photos. Are they really supposed to be 8X10? When older S auditioned in 2008, we just submitted his senior picture in the 2X3 size (wallet) and no one ever questioned it. Should they really have been 8X10? Younger S will be auditioning this fall and we want to be sure we do things correctly, if in fact, we did it wrong the last time. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>While schools likely will accept any photo, the NORM is to have an actor headshot that is 8 by 10. That is what you will see most applicants have and is what your son will need once he is in college and auditions for shows.</p>
<p>Wow, learn something new everyday. 
Thanks Soozievt. As usual.</p>
<p>Kiddo finally settled on 2 excellent photo choices (picking up the jpeg disk today!). I have the capability to print as needed at home on my trusty Kodak printer (which is what I’ve done in the past). She also needs a stack of them for BAA this summer, and I’ve heard that current industry trend is for the photos to have a border around them, and name in that border of the 8 x 10. We printed on matte paper in the past, due to our “home retouch” removal of stray hairs working better on matte. I can do matte, gloss or high-gloss…which is preferred? (I’m thinking matte, for no reflection, ability to write on, etc). Has anybody used Reproductions to have headshots printed? That was my first thought (and may yet do so for the college headshots), but we’re running out of time for the summer program needs. Noticed that others have used Kinkos…good results there? Sorry for so many questions…</p>
<p>Matte is preferable to gloss.</p>
<p>Reproductions is high quality with very good customer service. I also recommend Precision Photos… A little less expensive than Reproductions, very good quality, fast turn around.</p>
<p>Places like Kinkos, Staples, and Wal-Mart are good options if you only need a few pics, but the per pic cost is much higher overall than someplace like Reproductions or Precision Photos.</p>
<p>We have used Reproductions for over ten years and they are very good.</p>
<p>Two other places that do copies of headshots - Isgo Photo ([ISGO</a> Photo Lab](<a href=“http://www.isgophoto.com%5DISGO”>http://www.isgophoto.com)) and Rock Your Headshot ([Headshot</a> Reprints, Photo Reproductions, and Photo Retouching in Hollywood, Los Angeles](<a href=“http://www.rockyourheadshot.com%5DHeadshot”>http://www.rockyourheadshot.com)). The process with both companies is very fast since you upload your photo online (and choose your border, font for your name, etc) - and you can expedite shipping. Looks like it works the same way at Reproductions. And you can upload your photo and do the set-up (border, name, etc.) to see how it will look before you place your order. Doing copies this way ends up costing about 1.00 to 1.25 a headshot - definitely cheaper than Kinkos, etc.</p>
<p>works the same way at Precision photo too… It is sooooooo much easier now! :)</p>
<p>D did this with her headshots for college auditions last year and used Reproductions. They had very good customer service and the photos looked great with the border and her name. They sent a preview copy and her last name was misspelled and they corrected right away.</p>