Specular and strong reflections are the main problems encountered during part image defect inspection of shiny or highly reflective surfaces. In this letter, we propose an improved illumination method for defect inspection. A diffuse light source is designed based on the physics analysis of light reflection. The distribution of intensity is simulated according to a known model to verify the illumination uniformity of the source. Experiments show that defect expressivity when using the proposed illumination method has a better performance. The optical model is not only suitable for the defect detection of metal balls but also for the defect detection of planes and cylinders.