New to Product photography

Joel Klein wrote:

Product photography is something I’m being asked to do. I have the tools (or maybe not) Nikon Z7ii and Z MC 105 lens, a tripod, remote shutter release.

It began with a bottle of alcoholic beverage, And now I got an expensive Bourbon that requires a white clean background with no shadows for the graphic designer.

I called B&H, explained that I have the skill to capture Eagles at the Conowingo dam with a Z9 and long glass, I have a full fledge kids portrait studio, lighting softboxes, props, and everything in between. but I have never done products professionally, and I’m being asked to do so.

Good, you're half-way there: you can shoot a portrait.

The most important rule of all photography: still life, product, architecture, vehicle, sports, event, is that everything is a portrait. There are universal rules about how to pose someone or something peacefully, aggressively, joyfully, seductively, etc. that translate directly from shooting humans to shooting a box of cereal, a watch, or a car.

Why say no to additional opportunities? I don’t want to use my giant soft boxes for products, I want them to stay where they are.

Well, sort of. By all means, leave the lights where they are, but change the boxes and wheel your "product table" into the center of your portrait studio. Then change the soft boxes. I use small soft boxes for small products, big ones for human-sized products or human-sized portraits, and really big ones for things like cars.

So the rep recommended this

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1436269-REG

You know what C H U N K said about he didn't think that would do what you want? He's right. You'll get stray light all over the bottle and it will look like one big reflection. And you'll drive yourself silly playing with your lights outside the box.

I think I read you already ordered the thing. I'd seriously suggest not opening it when it arrives. Fill out the form for a return, take it down to the closest UPS, USPS, FedEX, etc. and send it off gently into that good night.

I would love to learn more / read more about this genre of photography.

Any ideas? Tips? Do’s and dont’s?

Sure.

1. Decide how much of this you want to do. The E&E (education and equipment) investment isn't insane, but do plan on spending at least a couple hundred on small soft boxes that will work with your A300s in a variety of shapes and sizes (rectangular, strip, round) all with grids, wheels for your C-stands if they don't already have them, scrims and stands. A "beauty dish" with grid may become your "main" for product, and also become part of your portrait arsenal. Ditto the strip lights: you may find them great product fills, but also awesome hair lights.
2. Do you have a remote for your A300s? The Godox remote is a joy in general and a must-have for product.
3. That book Roger mentioned, "Light, Science, and Magic", has stood the test of time and I think it's still the best lighting book out there, both in general and for product specifically. It's about 50% product, 50% "everything else", and that everything else will help you level up your portrait work. Strong foundation. Don't let a weaker book or video series establish a weak foundation in your head that you'll have to work to tear down: start with the best.
4. Once you've read LS&M, read Allison Earnest's "The New Lighting for Product Photography: The Digital Photographer's Step-by-Step Guide to Sculpting with Light". It's the book with the Libby signature "Z-Stem" martini glass" on the cover. I think the 2019 edition is the latest. There are older ones on Amazon, alongside the current one.
5. Start playing. Different shapes and colors of bottles demand different treatment. Vodka is all about "caustics", the patterns light casts around and inside the clear liquid. Whisky is dark and contrasty. Each liquor has a personality, and a family of bottle shapes associated with it.
6. Get two bottles of Crystal Head vodka: one to photograph, one to sip. If you can master the Crystal Head bottle, you can shoot anything.
7. Watch videos and read blogs on how to build a product table. You may go through stages: setting up on a plain-old folding table and rigging a backdrop support, then screwing a support directly to the table, then building a frame that can hold a curved piece of white plexiglass, but it's not expensive.