In response to seejohnrun's version to check if a URL exists. Even if the file doesn't exist you're still going to get 404 headers. You can still use get_headers if you don't have the option of using CURL..
$file = 'http://www.domain.com/somefile.jpg';
$file_headers = @get_headers($file);
if($file_headers[0] == 'HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found') {
$exists = false;
}
else {
$exists = true;
}