How to increase contrast without software?

[Brieti]

Hi, I am at work taking pictures of some consumer products in a light tent with a Canon Digital Rebel 350D SLR. I've been taking them manually, at about f/4.5 and an exposure time of 1/40 sec, with an ISO of 200. I've been bracketing that exposure time with a slower and faster one just in case. Here is the problem: some of the products have dark areas and light areas. If I want to expose the dark areas correctly, it seems the lighter areas always come out too dark. I'm an amateur photographer, so I'm not sure what to do to fix this problem. Does it have anything to do with metering? Is there a setting on the camera somewhere that helps with contrast? My boss doesn't want to use any software to edit the pictures... Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[fmw]

Use lower contrast lighting in the first place. Use a light tent.

 

[auer1816]

You can either increas the intensity of the light (less diffusion) or increase the contrast setting in-camera. If you change the contrast setting you're just doing the photo editing in the camera rather than on a computer. Why the reluctance to edit the photos with software? That's like taking shots on a roll of film and having them developed and printed at a 1-hour photo place. Cameras are great at capturing an image, but they're usually not very good at creating a photograph.