Even if your camera doesn't have a specific "aperture priority mode", if you can set the f stop it will do aperture priority. The thing to remember is that the higher the f stop number, the smaller the aperture, the better the depth of field will be.
For lighting, get some inexpensive flood lights from Lowes or Home Depot. The clip on style will work fine. Use daylight spectrum bulbs, incandescent bulbs are fine, you won't have them turned on for long periods of time. The floods will put out a lot of heat, so don't put them too close to the models. Use some sort of fill lighting to avoid harsh shadows. I don't think the fill light needs to be daylight spectrum.
