shatterkiss
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Headshots are also one of those areas where the look is highly-codified and there are certain expectations. This varies a little bit (more so in NYC than LA, more so in theater and film than television, more so in dramatic actors than comedic, etc.), but there's still an expectation that headshots will look a certain way.
I went to film school and studied directing, then worked in film and television for several years. One directing class literally spent a month on just reviewing headshots and conducting auditions. Later on, as a PA or assistant to producers I would often be the first line in receiving headshots for productions (you try opening literally thousands of 8x10 envelopes per day - it's miserable work).
An "incorrect" headshot will get thrown in the trash immediately. Quite literally, it gets one glance. That means that the actor whose headshot wasn't shot right will get no auditions. Ever. Zero. This could be because it's a full-length shot, or because it's too tight to see body type, because it doesn't give an indication of apparent height, because the contrast is too high to get a sense of hair color, because it doesn't indicate an actor who has freckles, because it shows too much cleavage, because it doesn't show the shoulders or upper arms on a woman, because it's too smiley for an actor doing dramatic roles, because it's not smiley enough for a comedic actor, because the actor's shirt is too colorful, because the lighting is too dramatic and it prematurely-ages the actor, because it's shot against a goofy mottled muslin, because the actor's shoulders look too broad...
It's such a fine line.
Much like weddings, this is why people who do headshots tend to be specialists. I can shoot a CEO portrait for the annual report but that's not a successful headshot. I can shoot an editorial portrait for a magazine but that wouldn't work as a headshot. The only crossover that I really see with headshots are to author photos for dustjackets and publicity usage and some magazine's byline inset photos. People who shoot headshots as well as other things shoot them very differently, and the first question for a headshot shoot is going to be, "what kind of work are you auditioning for?"
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, this is funny to me. I was kind of in the same situation not too long ago and ended up coaching a family member through it. The picture(s) were not the best, but were not unusable either.