So heres' the setup. Yep. Right on the kitchen counter!
Here's the key thing. Keep the focus of your picture the focus of your picture. Declutter your background. Get good light. Focus and steady the camera. And keep the focus of your picture the focus of your picture. Don't put anything in the picture that will detract...
I put a black bound book on the counter with a piece of tinfoil between the pages. You can use The Lord Of The Rings trilogy of you like, it works for me, but I don't think it makes any difference.... I bend the tinfoil to bounce light under the pen. And I used a black encased calculator to prop up the pen. Simple but effective.
I used the kitchen lights which are flourescent, and close the blinds to get rid of the sunlight, and turn off the dining room light since it's incandescent. I do this so the light is all the same. I've got the light behind the valance, and the overhead light.
Then I turn off the flash. I don't need that much light. I could use a diffuser in front of the flash by taping something on, but I've never bothered. And that's it for lighting.
I place my camera on the tripod, and set it at an appropriate angle.
Then I set up the camera with custom settings. I use a piece of plain typing paper for setting the white balance for this specific light and spot. (What do you think that manual is for? Get it out and read it.)
Then I set the camera on macro. Again, get that manual out...
Next I set up ISO for the lowest setting I can get. Mine can go down to 50. Don't ask me why, I've not quite figured it out...
Then I set the exposure to a neutral "zero" setting. It's working for this amount of light for me. You may want to take a few pictures at different exposure settings to see how your photos turn out.
I also set the resolution to the highest it will go, because you can always reduce the size of the file, but you can't make it bigger or increase the resolution if it starts out small.
Then I have another custom setting, and I set that on "Vivid". Why? because it just looks better that way.
Anyway, the three or four biggest mistakes I see people make is to take a picture with flash, on a cluttered background, and no macro, then they either move the camera so the picture is blurred, or they don't get the camera focused on the right thing.
But you don't have to have a $2,000 camera rig to take decent photos...
All four pictures in the first post were taken with my point and shoot, tripod, right there on the counter with the two florescent lights, the book, calculator and tin foil... and a... PEN of course!