Convert image to base 64 string with Laravel

It worked for me in the following way:

$image = base64_encode(file_get_contents($request->file('image')));

I eliminated this part ->pat‌​h();

Laravel's $request->file() doesn't return the actual file content. It returns an instance of the UploadedFile-class.

You need to load the actual file to be able to convert it:

$image = base64_encode(file_get_contents($request->file('image')->pat‌​h()));