Image source not readable with Laravel Image Intervention - php

Question

So this has been a problem for me for a while now and it just doesn't seem to work, I have a form where users can submit a new profile picure:
<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="/profile" method="POST">
<input type="file" name="avatar">
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">
<input type="submit" class="pull-right btn btn-sm btn-primary">
</form>
When the button is clicked they are being redirected to the controller which activates the following function:
public function update_avatar(Request $request)
{
$avatar = $request->avatar;
$extension = File::extension($avatar);
$filename = time() . '.' . $extension;
Image::make($avatar)->resize(350, 350)->save( public_path('/uploads/avatars/' . $filename ) );
$user = Sentinel::getUser();
$user->profile->avatar = $filename;
$user->save();
}
But whatever I do the controller always returns the message
(1/1) NotReadableException
Image source not readable
Does anyone know how I can fix this?
EDIT: I've changed my Image::make line to the following:
$image = Image::make($avatar->getRealPath())->resize(350, 350)->save( public_path('/uploads/avatars/' . $filename ) );
But now I am encountering a new error:
(1/1) FatalErrorException
Call to a member function getRealPath() on string

Answer 1

Try this instead :
Image::make($avatar->getRealPath())->resize(350, 350)->save( public_path('/uploads/avatars/' . $filename ) );
Edit:
use this, to retrieve your UploadedFile
$avatar = $request->file('avatar');
Edit #2:
For the extension use this instead :
$extension = $avatar->getClientOriginalExtension();
Note: Do not forget to authorize only images files in your validation rules.
Intead, you can "hardcode" the extension, Intervention is able to save & convert into the specified image format (jpg, png ..)