Ideas to cover my unfinished basement ceiling and add lighting?

You can cover it up with some drapes-https://www.hometalk.com/diy/floors-ceilings/basement-craft-room-ceiling-13976160?r=1

Paint all the wood black, or dark green, or whatever, polish the ductwork (Very chic) and hang some track lights between the rafters. Check the total height so the lights themselves will hang below the rafters but you won’t hit your head. Track lights are nice because you can point light where you want it. I’d get dimmable, so you don’t blind yourself looking up. Lampsplus.com has reasonably priced stuff. I’ve used them and been pleased.

Areas where the pipes are, dry wall around them.

https://www.hometalk.com/diy/decorate/rooms/creating-a-wood-post-covering-for-a-basements-metal-suport-post-19107917?r=1

Spray paint everything - ducts, pipes - everything - a medium dark brown. Not black. You see this done in some restaurants. Everything will blend together and because it's not black, it won't feel like a cave. My son recently did this and it looks great.

Using an electric stapler I covered over entire rafters, and all pipes and ductwork hanging down past them. Material used first was flame retardant plastic sheeting from Menards. Then over that, I stapled large canvas sheets (used for painting) that I got from Harbor Freight. For added interest, I stapled fish netting from Hobby Lobby over a large air duct hanging down, then placed curtain blinds over my crawl space entrance to give the illusion of a window. I also hit glued brown burlap fabric over a sewer pipe, and pipes shooting off of it, so it looks like a little tree, then layered more fish netting around the pipes to mimic the flow of leaves. It's been up 3 years and not one staple has loosened, all holding tight. It looks awesome and not difficult at all, I had fun doing it all by myself!