We present a fast and flexible non-interferometric method for the correction of small surface deviations on spatial light modulators, based on the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm. The surface distortion information is extracted from the shape of a single optical vortex, which is created by the light modulator. The method can be implemented in optical tweezers systems for an optimization of trapping fields, or in an imaging system for an optimization of the point-spread-function of the entire image path.