A fast and effective shape reconstruction method of large aspheric specular surfaces with high order terms is proposed in fringe reflection technique, which combines modal estimation with high-order finitedifference algorithm. The iterative equation with highorder truncation errors is derived for calculating the specular surface with large aperture based on high-order finite-difference algorithm. To achieve the wavefront estimation and improve convergence speed, the numerical orthogonal transformation method based on Zernike polynomials is implemented to obtain the initial iteration value. The reconstruction results of simulated surface identified the advantages of the proposed method. Furthermore, a freeform in illuminating system has been used to demonstrate the validity of the improved method in practical measurement. The results show that the proposed method has the advantages of making the reconstruction of different shape apertures accurate and rapid. In general, this method performs well in measuring large complex objects with high frequency information in practical measurement.