i am by not an expert in photography... but this is what I do since I suck BIG TIME.
i set my Nikon D50 to aperture mode, then spot focus with the lowest ISO setting and auto WB. If it's needed, I'll use flash, but set it to lowest setting possible (i hate flash). the most important thing it to take it in RAW.
I then open it up in PS and I can adjust the exposure and shade/shadow before converting it to jpg. after that, I just do batch resize and manually blur out all the plates. hope that helps...
I need a better lens or something to capture the closeup shots better...