CAVEAT!!! You CAN save time doing post in Photoshop. However, it is important to think about, and learn, when it is better to spend the extra 20 minutes doing the work on the set so you don't end up spending 2 hours doing an illustration on the computer. Also, don't teach your support people bad habits. You don't want them thinking that Mr. (or Ms.) wizard can fix everything and get sloppy about cleaning the product. Yes, you can get rid of the dust in Photoshop, but one spritz with the Dust-Off is a lot quicker.

Keeping the aformentioned in mind, one of the great time savers is doing multiple shots in LOCK DOWN. So don't touch the camera. You need to be able to shoot from the computer, or use a cable release. I like to use the cable release as I can get in close to the set to hold a bounce card and shoot at the same time without having to get one of those pesky stands and clamps.

Here's an example. Sterling silver pen on a black suede notebook. Bank light for smooth highlight on the pen, hard light from a deep pan for suede texture. Swivel bank light on boom out of the set an shoot with the hard light exposure 1. Remove hard light, swivel top bank light for exposure 2. Bring both shots into Photoshop, layer one on top of the other, add a layer mask, and you have exactly what you want. I will go into this in greater detail later on with pictures.

My main point is, your digital camera should (must) allow you to shoot from the computer, and a cable release is great too.