I'd say some work with the lighting would've been best on this one-
Since the scale of things is so small here, it wouldn't be too hard to use a sheet of paper relatively low above them reflecting a flash or the light from some constant light source, like a halogen worklamp. Just make sure you lower your ambient light so that you don't have multiple color temperatures.
Placing the paper above it would make the lighting more even and soft because the relative size of the source is large. This way, they wouldn't cast so much of a shadow.