Questions about shooting for Book

[retroactiv]

I tried to sum up the initial idea behind my question. I'm shooting trophies for use in a book next week. I plan on using a white sheet as a background as the author wants to be able to cut out the pictures to use in the book without background. He has also asked that I keep reflections of light and whats in the background off of the trophies.

What I'm asking are there some tricks I can use with my SB-800 and D2Xs to make these pictures great. He is paying me quite a bit to get great photos and hinted he might need my work again so I'm shooting for the very best, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[gahspidy]

How large are the trophies? For the reasonably sized ones I think your best bet would be to shoot these inside a light tent.
You can use a bounce or shoot through umbrella with a reflector on the other side for a nice result as well.

[retroactiv]

These are old school State Championship Trophies. They are reasonably sized. I was thinking about bouncing because I don't have or need a light tent for anything but this it's just an odd job I was called to do and couldn't turn down the money.

[another view]

Bounce lighting is probably the best idea, but it may be even a little too soft. A little contrast can add some sparkle and shine, and the card that you pull out of the flash head (can't remember what they call it, it's in the same spot as the pull-out diffuser) might provide just a little bit of highlight on it. You will have a few blown highlights, but I think you'll need it to make it look good (which is opposite of what a lot of people say).

Just thinking about some things I've photographed like guitars, the highlights are really important. You might want to practice with even a continuous light source to really see what's happening. I'm not sure of your experience level and you probably don't need to buy anything. A table lamp without a shade can be a light source for something like this, and a white sheet can be a diffuser. All that, a roll of duct tape and some time to experiment should produce some pretty nice results. Practice on something similar if you can - a trophy if you have one, some sort of sculpture that has matte and gloss surfaces to it, etc.

[retroactiv]

I want to thank you guys for helping me out, I'll be sure to post the photos when I get them shot next Thursday.