My equipment:-

Current Camera = Nikon Coolpix 5700 [5 megapixels 8x optical zoom]
Location = Office at work. (Also where I do my modelling)
Lighting = Mainly fluorescent, occasionally I will supplement with halogen desk lamps with plain white paper as a diffuser.
Accessories = Tripod, AC adapter for camera, plain card for backdrop (available from any craft shop), USB Card reader, Adobe Photoshop CS (Adobe) and ACDSee V5 (ACD Systems).

Taking the photos:-

After using the 5700 camera for nearly a year now, I have found the easiest way to shoot my models, is leave all settings as default, except the white balance, which I set to "fluorescent". I take the photos at the largest size the camera takes and with the least compression, in this case 2560 x 1920.

I will place the model in the center of the light blue card, place the camera about 4-5 feet from the model, turn off the flash (unless needed), set to macro mode with self-timer, and use to zoom to frame the shot, then take a few test shots. I then remove the memory card from the camera and download onto my PC, check the photos in Photoshop and then make any necessary adjustments to the camera, lighting as required.

I then snap a few shots of each view I want of the model. All shots are taken in macro with self-timer, (self-timer only works in macro on this camera), so as to eliminate any camera shake. For any closeup shots I move the camera to with in 2 feet of the model and zoom in as necessary. Once satisfied I have enough shots, Ill once again download on to my PC.

Editing the photos:-
Once the shots are on my PC, I load them one at a time into Photoshop and crop each image to frame the model. Then I adjust the levels, and apply an "Auto Colour" adjustment.

Original photo...

and after being tweaked in Photoshop

Once happy with it I crop to 800 wide and 100dpi and save as a different filename. Once all are done I copy these modified pics to my web directory and open them in ACDSee, save at 85% compression, and resize and save as a second file, 400 pixels wide for a thumbnail for my website.

I hope this helps you in some small way.