For magazine photos, they use light banks. Here's how to do a cheap homemade version that can work well: buy several pieces of white posterboard and foam board. Use them for the backgrounds and "floor" for your photography. You can bend, but not crease the posterboard and place your item on it (smaller items work best) for a background that has no "horizon".
Take one foam board and score it down the middle and fold it in half. You now have a homemade "reflector" that stands up by itself. Open it to slightly wider than a 90 degree angle and have it reflect the light back onto the item. This erases harsh shadows and brightens up the photos. How much light is being reflected is not very visible in real life, but it shows up in the photo.
I like to make a station for photography near a window and use natural "side lighting". I have a white curtain over the window so the light is not too harsh when photos are taken at midday. I have a photograph of my photography station in my "about" page. Hope this helps.
