If you can't use CDC (i.e. you don't have SQL Enterprise), then you can always use triggers.

For instance...suppose you have a table called HIstoryLog, where you track changes.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[HistoryLog](
	[TableName] [char](120) NULL,
	[PrimaryKey] [int] NULL,
	[columnname] [varchar](150) NULL,
	[oldvalue] [varchar](120) NULL,
	[newvalue] [varchar](120) NULL,
	[DateTimeChanged] [datetime] NULL,
	[username] [varchar](120) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]

And suppose you wanted to track history when someone changes the Freight or Ship Date columns (I'll use the adventureworks PurchaseOrderHeader table as an example). There is only one "tried and true" way to capture if values actually changed. Use the INSERTED and DELETED tables...join them together on the key column of the source table, and examine the "after" and "before" values, like so:

CREATE TRIGGER [Purchasing].[PurchaseOrderHeader_UPDATE] ON
    [Purchasing].[PurchaseOrderHeader] 
   AFTER  UPDATE 
AS 
BEGIN
	-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
	-- interfering with SELECT statements.
	SET NOCOUNT ON;

	
	-- if we have a table with multiple update triggers....they may step on each other, 
	-- or they may wind up calling each other recursively, to the point of exceeding
	-- the sql server system limit on recursion   (32 levels)
	

  update Purchasing.PurchaseOrderHeader set ModifiedDate= getdate() 
       from inserted
         join Purchasing.PurchaseOrderHeader ON Inserted.PurchaseOrderID = PurchaseOrderHeader.PurchaseOrderID 
         join Deleted on Inserted.PurchaseOrderID = Deleted.PurchaseOrderID
         where inserted.Freight <> deleted.Freight or inserted.shipdate <> deleted.shipdate


   -- Note...to check if something has been updated, and if the value
   -- has truly changed, don't use the UPDATED statement!....It only 
    -- checks if the column was part of an UPDATE statement...not if it actually changed

  insert into HistoryLog    -- all 1 statement
    SELECT 'Orders', Inserted.PurchaseOrderID,
           'Freight', Deleted.Freight, Inserted.Freight, GETDATE(), SYSTEM_USER
     FROM Inserted
            JOIN Deleted ON Inserted.PurchaseOrderID = Deleted.PurchaseOrderID 
         WHERE Inserted.Freight <> Deleted.Freight


  insert into HistoryLog
    SELECT 'Orders', Inserted.PurchaseOrderID,
           'ShipDate', Deleted.ShipDate, Inserted.ShipDate, GETDATE(), SYSTEM_USER
     FROM Inserted
            JOIN Deleted ON Inserted.PurchaseOrderID= Deleted.PurchaseOrderID
         WHERE Inserted.ShipDate <> Deleted.ShipDate


END
go