A self-calibration three-dimensional object surface measurement method with three image frames based on Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization method was proposed. The phase shift fringe map was obtained by translation grating, and the fringe background was eliminated by subtracting phase shift fringe maps with different frames. Then a phase demodulation method using Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization method and the least-square method was developed, so that the measurement phase can be extracted. Taking five steps Harlharan algorithm as a reference, the object surface was measured by different algorithms. The results show that compared with three steps phase shift algorithm and principal component analysis algorithm, the proposed method is more precise with phase error less than 0.5 rad and simplifies the mensuration.