I'm setting up a website (http://knowlist.com) that allows people to
set up and organize collections of any arbitrary type of thing. To get
it started, I'm trying to create lots of little collections of things.

For instance, I'd like to buy a bag of 100 toy soldiers, take a
picture of each one, give a name to and write a description for each
one, and then upload them to the website.

Now, I'm guessing that I'm going to have to write a custom program to
help me name and describe things (the program would go through a list
of photos and display each one and let me enter in the info on each
page).

But, taking the photos is likely to be time consuming and I'd like to
know the easiest way to do this.

Does anyone have any hints? I was wondering if perhaps there were PC
applications that integrated directly with a camera to allow me to
automate part of the process.

I also need to know how to light everything so that I don't need to
edit the picture to adjust lighting after I've taken it.

I suppose the best idea is to just get some books on photography, but
I was hoping that there were some automated systems or cameras that
had scripting capabilities or something else that professionals might
use.

Hello, a clarification - you really do have two questions here.  I
think I can answer the first one (about the photos), and could take a
stab at the second one about lighting.  Would you like to clarify your
question down to the data/organization issues?

Thanks!

Sure. Go ahead and answer whatever you can. Part of the issue here is
that I don't know what to ask.