Pulse wave is an important indicator of human physiological status. The non-contact pulse wave detection technology based on imaging has vital research significance in the field of medical and health. Because the current non-contact method of obtaining pulse wave is always lack of waveform details, a method of obtaining pulse wave signal using near-infrared light source and multi-frame continuous photography of carotid pulse was proposed. With experiment environment of an 850 nm light source, epidermal vibration caused by carotid artery pulsation was photographed using an industrial near-infrared camera. The original pulse wave signal was extracted after selecting the region of interest, then the signal was filtered by maximal overlapping discrete wavelet transform. Eventually, the preserving details pulse wave was obtained. The measurement results of different subjects showed that the obtained wave observes the characteristics of the main wave, tidal wave and heavy pulse wave. The proposed method plays an important role for non-contact acquisition of pulse wave.