Bill,

That seems to work fine, I would position the sheet a little lower so that you have more flat surface. That way you will not get such a hard shadow as in your second picture



This is a side view of what I mean

I think your goal for most shots would be no shadow.  Takes a bit of playing with added light to do that...  Johne can you suggest some decent quality tri-pod mounted lighting that accepts filters to change temperature?

Chris...

Anthony,

There is no rule concerning the shadow direction. However like Chris said most product shots have very little shadow because of the diffuse nature of the light mostly used in these shots. A little shadow is needed to "anchor" the subject to the ground. If you remove all shadow then you get that floating, cut-out look.

Chris,

What sort of light are you looking for, flash or tungsten? And why would you want to change the color temp. of the lights.
If you need to change color temperature to match different light sources you should take a look at the Lee filter collection.

http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/products/range/ref:I46C9C0F254FD6/

They sell them in large sheets that you can cut to size.
All lights, can be used with these filters, be they flash or tungsten, just tape em on the lamp or use clamps etc..

If you use tungsten be carefull with the heat they generate, they could melt your filters.

Let me know what kind of light you re looking for and i will see if i can help.

Thanks very much. With info like this I'll keep getting better. The lighting was just my flash and the shop lights. I do have some halogens on a tripod at my business though. I'll put this info to use asap. Thanks again.