A solar energy collection system can include a plurality of heliostats configured to reflect sunlight to a target mounted on a tower. Each of the heliostats can have a heliostat controller configured to control a respective heliostat so that the sunlight reflected therefrom is directed to at least one of a plurality of cameras. The cameras can be oriented to image the heliostat. A second controller can be configured to compute geometry data that defines a geometry of the surface of the heliostat from captured images thereof. The geometry data can designate a plurality of subsections of the surface. The computing by the second controller can include storing data indicating sections of the captured images corresponding to the plurality of subsections of the heliostat. The second controller can also calculate data indicating respective surface normals of each of said subsections of each of said heliostat.