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The Importance of Good Lighting
Lighting is nearly as important a tool as your camera.

It may be strange to think of lighting as a tool, because it always seems to be there. After all, you can take a snapshot almost anywhere, with either available light or the light from a built-in flash which turns on automatically. In fact, you are always choosing your lighting, even if only by default and it is shaping how your subject appears.

The key to effective product photography is lighting and the key to effective lighting is control. Once you understand how, you can control the strength, size, position, color and number of lights you use. And, each of these controls changes how the subject looks.

However, let's take it one light at a time...

An Easy and Simple Window Lighting Setup
If I had to choose just one light to use for product photography, it would be the light coming from a bright, non-sunny window. That's because this light is both large (which is what makes it diffuse and soft) and it is directional, which can help show off the shape and texture of my subject.

...read the full guide with pics here

Useful info - thanks. I spend quite a bit of time and effort to set up photos so the colours look accurate and there is no flashback. It's true that a picture paints a thousand words!

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I never thought about it that much, great info!

I have a really hard time shooting items that are completely black in color. The black always comes out faded. We also have trouble shooting books or album covers without getting a glare from the flash or the window. I am thinking with these we need to use a defused light and no flash.

Thanks for the Info and the examples. They were very helpful.

I've seen some small setups for taking great pictures for smaller items. It's pretty much a small backdrop with light.