How to photograph hands/nails with a DSLR?

I need to photograph hands with my nikon D50 to demonstrate my work. I'm somewhat of an slr novice and would love any suggestions on how to make the hands look less like alien beasties and more like the works of art they are!

I won't use a macro for your hands. Better a 50 mm or some bit longer. Look for a smooth lighting without deep shadows. And frame them well on a plain background or on your skirt

Flat lighting (no shadows) try the pop up may work at this range. Ideally a couple of diffused soft-boxes.

A Macro lens will be needed to get close detail shots as your lens won't focus close enough, or the much cheaper option of a close up lens kit to screw onto the filter thread of your lens, £20 vs £300. Not as good an image quality than a dedicated Macro lens, but much less difference than you might think from the price difference.

If you only want low res images for the web, focus as close as you can, take the picture and, in Photoshop or similar, crop the parts of the image you want, there will still be enough pixels for web use or small prints and you will get a much greater depth of field (all parts of the hand in focus).

Use a ring flash or ring light