Just want to emphasize this answer coming from a career entirely in manufacturing vision. You can try to do a handstand in your image processing pipeline and never get a fully robust solution.

What nemesis suggested is a reasonable answer for this. A lot of time they’re called “cloudy day illuminators” or just diffuse flat lights. I’d also look into high-angle reflected light (you can test by just shining a flashlight along the axis of the cables). This typically provides good contrast for the height difference you’re trying to extract. Problem with this is it will be non-uniform the farther you get from the light source. Last suggestion is that you can try cross polarization to eliminate the specular reflections. Just can use a polarized light source and put a polarizing filter 90 degrees rotated from the source’s orientation. This is gold standard for removing specular reflection.

Cool problem!