Techniques for automatically adjusting and/or optimizing the color and/or intensity of the illuminating light used in a vision system is presented. The intensity of each of a plurality of illuminating light colors is allowed to be independently adjusted to adapt the illumination light based on the color of a part feature against the part feature background of a part being viewed by the vision system to produce high contrast between the part feature and background. Automated contrast optimization may be achieved by stepping through all available color combinations and evaluating the contrast between the part feature and background to select a color combination having a "best" or acceptable contrast level. Alternatively, contrast optimization may be achieved by performing a "smart" search in which a high contrast coarse illumination light is first selected, and then all available color combinations within range of the selected coarse illumination color are stepped through to select a fine illumination color resulting in optimal contrast.