>>3667285> I don't actually own any camera beyond what's on my cell phoneWell then the first option is to try and use that and figure out what -even with good light- you actually *can't* do with it.
Where did you have problems this far?
> Are there particular options I should consider that are on the cheaper side?Not sure.
> I'm hopeful I could get some smaller, cheaper lighting that would be easily portable.That almost intrinsically has problems. You very, VERY often want soft light.
The problem is that even with a diffuser soft light only is comparatively soft when it's comparatively large and close (a combination of the two) to the object that you photograph. At some distance it's already like a hard point light again.
Now the other "diffuser" you can use is white walls, e.g. ceilings or walls. If you work with these, you want one or multiple powerful strobes - they can still be portable, but you know, powerful ones get bigger. And maybe you need multiple, depends on the location.
Another way is typical white diffuse reflectors surrounding the objects. Then you need considerably less light and it is already soft when it bounces off these surfaces. But well, that too is a thing or things with some size, even if maybe you can fold them.
> One idea I had was buying an older android phone with a good cameraNot sure you can get anything worthwhile. And if you get into better not so old phone cameras you really might as well get a pretty APS-C or MFT for little more.
The idea would be to use your current hopefully midrange-ish phone. Or just your current phone, as test at least.
