Extended dynamic range (EDR) imaging is a postprocessing technique commonly associated with photography. Multiple images of a scene are recorded by the camera using different shutter settings and are merged into a single higher dynamic range image. Speckle interferometry and holography techniques require a well-modulated intensity signal to extract the phase information, and of these techniques shearography is most sensitive to different object surface reflectivities as it uses self-referencing from a sheared image. In this paper the authors demonstrate real-time EDR imaging in shearography and present experimental results from a difficult surface reflectivity sample: a wooden panel painting containing gold and dark earth color paint.