My gut tells me that fixed, overhead lights alone are not the best solution for this. Certainly some ceiling lights over your table are called for, but some task-lighting on or near the table might be more useful. The choices are virtually unlimited, wall-mounted scissors, table-top or floor cantilevered, goose-neck or swing-arm.... Pull-down lights installed in the ceiling might be useful as well.

If you think about it, the shadows might be serving you with this kind of work. You just need to be able to control them. At work, recently, I had one of my staff working on a project in a well-lighted, shadow-free biosafety cabinet lighted by two, inside, high-output fluorescent lamps. She has great dexterity and is a persistent person, but was having trouble getting a procedure right that requires stabbing into a flat surface at precise points to clone virus.

I've done the procedure many times in the past and I went down for a look. I brought in a brooder lamp-type luminaire, plugged it in, and positioned it lateral to the surface. Problem was solved and we went on our merry way. We needed shadow.