I take mine out on the back covered deck of our house/light is perfect a couple times a day, that the angle makes taking pictures easy. I use a old sony mavica that is point and shoot and had a great macro...I dont have to crop the photo's or anything, the size and all is perfect for eBay. I use outdoor light because I get the beads to be more the color they are to my eyes...whenever I have tried indoor lighting, I have no luck....I take mine on a stone tile I got at home depot. White paper seems to make the whole job a lot lot harder...I also use wood for a background...not all backgrounds work/some are easier to focus on and get the beads to be their true color. I never use direct sun/unless there is some dichro in the bead and I want some sparkle/flashy stuff going on, then I take it at an angle
here is my
glassartist.org gallery...it has a lot of photo's...if they are in sunshine, its cuz I wanted someone to see the beads with full sun hitting them...but for the most part, they are taken in indirect light/most all are taken with my sony mavica fd-73...some where taken with my nikon coolpix 3100.