We propose a near-infrared (NIR) image reconstruction method based on molecular reorientation of nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) doped with the azo-dye methyl red (MR). The signal can be recovered at the expense of noise via stochastic resonance. The numerical results show that image reconstruction based on the molecular reorientation in a magnetic field can be achieved when the input light intensity is 0.9W/cm2, this is due to the strong enhancement of the nonlinear optical response in MR doped-NLCs. The cross-correlation coefficient is increased from 0.26 to 0.54, and the maximum cross-correlation gain is 2.25. The results suggest a potential method in NIR weak optical image processing under noisy environments. © 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement.