I'll echo everything that MantisFang said, and add a few thoughts/observations of my own:
More light is good, almost always, as long as it's diffused. A cheap pair (or trio) of desk lamps from a nearby retailer will work wonders, with some decent (and reasonably inexpensive) bulbs. I strongly prefer standard incandescent bulbs for their output. If you decide to go this route, buy some bulbs that lean toward the "cooler" end of the color temp spectrum, that pump some decent light. The more light, the easier time your camera or phone will have focusing on the subject, and the less "grain" you introduce into the final image. Be sure to soften the lights, by either aiming them through the sides & top of your light box, or using thin white cloth, or my favorite inexpensive diffuser, good old-fashioned white tissue paper.
Sunlight is probably nature's greatest gift to photography and some of my best shots have come from shooting figures on my back porch, while the sun is directly overhead, but under the thin, corrugated roof of my patio. Under the subtle shade of a tree in my backyard is another great spot. Inside the house, at almost any hour of the day, without my light box? Forget about it -- especially when using my phone, as the lack of manual settings means the automatic white balance on my phone is going absolutely haywire and the colors of my photos always come out goofy.
Steady your camera of choice as best as you can. The more light you're using, the less of an issue this becomes, especially if you're using the auto-setting on your camera, or your average camera phone. A tripod is nice, but as MantisFang mentioned, it is not always ideal. I rarely use one because it limits my ability to "get in there", so to speak, when it comes to finding a compelling angle, and it slows everything down when you want to move things around for one or two quick shots. A lot of times I'm shooting figures on the ground or floor, and my shoe (with my foot in it) becomes my best friend for steadying a shot! I do it all the time.
I probably take at least ten shots before I get one I can sort of live with -- add another ten or twenty when I review those first ten and get angry with the results. So yup, sometimes I burn through 20 or 30 shots to post one silly photo to instagram. What an age we live in, ha ha! But hey, if you wanna get it just right, you gotta click, click, click until it's just so.
Edited by NeonGreen, 27 February 2016 - 09:44 PM.