A strong starting point is Light: Science and Magic. It’s widely recommended for beginners learning product lighting, but it goes well beyond basics: it explains core lighting principles, reflections, hard vs. soft light, and how to handle tricky materials like metal and glass.

For practical tabletop work, a light tent/cube is useful for quick, clean results on small products. It simplifies setup and helps create soft, even light. Typical advice is to focus on lighting first, use a small aperture for enough depth of field, and consider a macro lens if you need the product to fill the frame.

That said, if you want to grow beyond “easy” catalog-style shots, don’t rely only on the tent. A plain tabletop with separate lights and modifiers (such as umbrellas or softboxes) gives you much more control, including adding accent lights to define edges, texture, or difficult areas.

For online learning, look for tutorials on DIY light tents/light boxes, and lighting-focused resources such as Strobist. In short: use the tent for simple, even product shots, but study lighting theory and eventually move toward a more flexible tabletop lighting setup.