I've gotten some amazing names of photographers from this message board but I don't know if I should spend the money that some of them charge before my daughter has representation. Should I just look for a less expensive head shot photographer for the time being or can I feel confident that when she gets representation they will like some of the pics done by one of the top photographers. Some have advised not to spend more than around $150 on headshots initially

From what I've read on this board about child actors, 9 times out of 10 they really don't need a headshot. A simple nice photo will do, perhaps a school posed individual photo? Make a copy and show that to prospective agents. The advice you've gotten sounds good.

You will spend 100-150 dollars just on getting them reproduced in a quantity enough to submit to agents and CD's. A stack of 100 good quality headshots from Modernage or reproductions runs about 90 bucks and that is before the cost of retouching.
You definately arent going to find a photographer who does headshots for 50 bucks, thats for sure.
You dont need to spend the 700-1000 dollars that some people are charging for headshots. There are plenty of good photographers who can do 1-2 looks for much less but they still run about 250-350 dollars for the session.
It's just a cost you are going to have to bite the bullet on and eventually pay. In this business you need a headshot and since that is the basis (more often than not) that you will be granted auditions from, it's not the area you want to skimp on.
There are those that say you dont need them, use a school picture etc. etc. but that is a bunch of baloney. When you reach a certain level in this industry and you are playing in the big leagues and auditioning for films, TV, or even major commercials then you NEED a good headshot. You are competing against kids in LA AND NY and you can bet your a$$ that the majority of them ( especially the more experienced ones) have fabulous headshots ( and often equally fabulous resumes).

You wouldnt show up for a race at the Indy 500 driving a pinto, you wouldnt be running the 400 meter in the olympics wearing airwalks from payless and you shouldnt be submitting a polaroid for a FF film audition and expect to be taken seriously.

Can you land an agent using a school picture? Sure, it's been done before but what that school picture screams is : "Hello, I am brand new in the business and would like representation". Now to an agent who is looking at a stack of headshots with resumes trying to decide who to call in, who do you think is going to stand a better chance?

just a word of advice on the tail end of Actorsmommy's comments.....when playing in the big leagues,MOST big agencies don't even give school pictures a glance and they go right in the roundfile.

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Originally posted by rabbs:
just a word of advice on the tail end of Actorsmommy's comments.....when playing in the big leagues,MOST big agencies don't even give school pictures a glance and they go right in the roundfile.

Re: school pictures...That might be true in general...but I have to say that school pictures worked for us in our search for print agent, commercial & theatrical agent and manager. Maybe they were exceptionally good school pix LOL...J/K! Who knows. Or maybe we just got lucky. But I do agree, better pictures are likely a better choice.

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Originally posted by new2this:
I've gotten some amazing names of photographers from this message board but I don't know if I should spend the money that some of them charge before my daughter has representation. Should I just look for a less expensive head shot photographer for the time being or can I feel confident that when she gets representation they will like some of the pics done by one of the top photographers. Some have advised not to spend more than around $150 on headshots initially

It may depend if you are looking for print or acting representation. For print, it is definitely okay to send a snapshot or school photo to the agents. We did that and were signed immediately. We also continued to use a snapshot all summer long for go-sees which worked out fine. We are now having comp cards printed but we were fine starting with just a non-professional photo. Again, this was just for print representation. Good luck!

I hope i didn't come across as ruling out school pix as an option for print work. We started out with simple snapshots also that booked us many jobs and used a few when we interviewed... now that we are signed with an agent we have professional comp cards that can be submitted for the "bigger" jobs. :-). But for TV, Commercial etc...it's a whole other arena...now you're dealing with more than just a cute/marketable face and your comp card is your resume in the door.

I would just take a couple of good snapshots of your daughter and send them out with a short letter explaining you are looking for representation with a mention of any previous work she has done. I would send these out to various agencies. It won't hurt. Decent headshots at a minimum will cost you 250 and chances are your agent will have you re-take them so why waste your money if you don't have too-- now.. if you send out to 30 agencies/mgment and no one wants to meet with you well then maybe you take a really crappy photo and should then think about getting better ones!!! It never hurts to try. Most people I tallk to (includeing myself) got their agent with just photos taken in the back yard!!
Good luck in what ever you do!!!!

I would start the search for a kid's repressentation with a great snapshot because many managers and agents will want you to get new shots that they help select, which means you'll end up paying twice.

I was VERY inexperienced before we really got started in the biz and i thought my son needed headshots before he was signed so we spent 700 dollars on them. Now they did land him representation but unfortunatly they did request new ones a couple months later and they were about 500 dollars. Like Actormommys post said Modernage alone cost us $140 for 100 photos (they are a reproduction company) so it is usually an expensive thing. If I knew then what I knew now, I wouldve waited to get his headshots done. The thing is, his headshot in the beggining is what got him in the door.