I use a tripod and manual settings on my little camera so that I can adjust the depth of field, with no flash, on a 2 second timer (so I don't accidentally wobble the camera when I press the button ) with the light setting set at tungsten and the macro setting on. I then use a small white tent with one reflective side for which I light from the other side with a halogen desk lamp.

I tend to take my images slightly darker than they look so that I can adjust them within photoshop using levels or curves as appropriate.

I find that this takes minutes to set up and I tend to wait until I have a few items before I start taking piccies to save time.

This all works well for me, but you need to work out what works best for you. I usually only have evenings free to take images, so I can't rely on the UK's evening light due to the lovely weather we're having (not!)

Hope this helps,

This is going to sound really weird, but I find while sitting at an awkward angle the easiest way to stop the camera shaking when pressing the button is to take a really deep breath first, then press the shutter button while breathing out slowly. Sounds ridiculous (and probably looks it as well!) but it works for me (I used to have to photograph drawings from the top-down before I got a scanner, and the slightest bit of shake would muck the lines up something chronic).