Abstract The OSIRIS-REx mission used stereophotoclinometry (SPC) to generate digital terrain models (DTMs) of its target asteroid, Bennu. Here we present a suite of preflight tests conducted to identify the observing geometry and number of images needed to create DTMs that would enable successful navigation around and to the surface of the asteroid. We demonstrate that high-quality DTMs can be generated by using only five images: four that are focused on topography, in which the spacecraft’s viewing geometry brackets the target (north, south, east, and west), and a fifth that measures the target’s albedo variation, taken from near local noon. We further show that the first 10 iterations of the SPC process can meaningfully improve DTM quality, including in the case of a suboptimal input image set, whereas after 10 iterations the DTM quality approaches an asymptotic maximum. We distill our findings into recommendations for observation planning that can be applied by other missions intending to use SPC to model the shape and terrain of their target.