This document relates to determining the configuration of a medical imaging system, in particular a configuration which defines a desired viewing direction of the medical imaging system onto a patient. First, a fluoroscopic image of at least a part of a patient is captured using the medical imaging system and the target central beam is set in the fluoroscopic image. Then a target line in space is determined which, when projected into the fluoroscopic image, coincides with the set target central beam. Then the configuration of the medical imaging system is determined such that the central beam of the medical imaging system coincides with the target line in space.