I have yet to take any photos of pens, since I just decided to take the plunge into pen-making. In fact, I just placed my first order which will be delivered next week. However, I've taken a lot of photos of other items I've built.
For the photos of my furniture, I use an Arctic White seamless paper backdrop. I made simple light sources using shop light fixtures with daylight fluorescent bulbs. In most cases, I use the fixtures to provide light from each side and from above and slightly behind the item -- what might be called fill and backlight. The "key light" is the camera flash. I plan to do something similar when I'm ready for pen photographs.
I've used several different cameras over the years. Most of the photos you'll see on my website were taken with a Sony Mavica 2.1MP w/10X optical zoom. I place the camera on a tripod a few feet from the subject and zoom to get a suitable initial framing. Final cropping is done on the computer.
At some point during the processing on my computer, I adjust the color of the photo simply by doing a white level correction. I choose a point on the backdrop image that I know is "white" and apply the correction. That takes care of any variation caused by having my light sources at different points for different subjects. I never apply any modifications to my original image, so I can always start from scratch, if I want.
I'm no photography expert, but my process has worked for me.