A headlamp aiming system is provided for aiming a headlamp of a vehicle. An aimer includes a CCD camera for receiving illumination produced by the headlamp to produce a beam pattern image. A controller receives the beam pattern image from the aimer to determine an aiming correction to move the detected beam pattern to a predetermined position. An adjuster is operatively coupled to the vehicle for executing adjustments of the headlamp in response to the aiming correction. The CCD camera captures an initial image using an initial exposure time, measures a light accumulation value corresponding to the initial image, determines a final exposure time in response to the measured light accumulation value and a predetermined light accumulation value, and captures the beam pattern image using the final exposure time.