Is it necessary to have base64_encode - php

Question

I'm using the following tutorial to upload an image to imgur. I want to know whether it's necessary to have base64_encode when sending the data.
Here's a small code snippet:
$img=$_FILES['img'];
$filename = $img['tmp_name'];
$data = fread($handle, filesize($filename));
$pvars = array('image' => base64_encode($data)); // Here's the base64_encode
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $pvars);
Is it necessary to have base64_encode and why?
To see the full code, you can go here.

Answer 1

According to the Imgur documentation, there are alternative methods.
So, to answer your question, no it is not required as long as it is one of the other two supported options.

Answer 2

No it´s not necessary, and I don't know if this is a common practice for posting huge images.
You can also use the cURL option CURLOPT_INFILE
BEWARE: The below examples, may not work, they are just untestet examples.
// This is the entire file that was uploaded to a temp location.
$localFile = $_FILES[$fileKey]['tmp_name'];
$fp = fopen($localFile, 'r');
// Connecting to website.
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $target_url );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_UPLOAD, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_INFILE, $fp);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_BUFFERSIZE, 128);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_INFILESIZE, filesize($localFile));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
$result=curl_exec ($ch);
curl_close ($ch);
echo $result;
Or just a simple POST
$post = array('extra_info' => '123456','file_contents'=>'#'.$_FILES['upload']['tmp_name']);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$target_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST,1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
$result=curl_exec ($ch);
curl_close ($ch);
echo $result;