Pass an image to REST with POST API Call in flutter - image

Question

I am trying to pass an image that is taken from either camera or picked from the gallery and pass it to the backend using a POST API call.
I am using image_picker plugin for flutter to access the image from camera and and gallery.
following is what I tried.
get the image file (from file path) in file format.
decrease the size of the image into a smaller value (uses flutter_image_compress library for this).
convert the result into a base64 string value or as form data and set it to the field in request body.
I will provide what I tried from the flutter code end for the above approach. please can anyone guide me am I doing this right or is there a better way to achieve this?
Pick image from camera
Future _getImageFromCamera() async {
PickedFile petImage = await picker.getImage(source: ImageSource.camera,maxHeight: 1000);
var _imageURITemp = File(petImage.path);
final filePath = _imageURITemp.absolute.path;
final lastIndex = filePath.lastIndexOf(new RegExp(r'.jp'));
final splitted = filePath.substring(0, (lastIndex));
final outPath = "${splitted}${filePath.substring(lastIndex)}";
final compressedImage = await FlutterImageCompress.compressAndGetFile(
filePath,
outPath,
minWidth: 1000,
minHeight: 1000,
quality: 50);
//
setState(() {
var str = compressedImage.path.split('/');
_imageURI = str[str.length - 1] as IO.File;
}
Uploading with the POST method*
String base64Image;
if(_imageURI != null) {
List<int> imageBytes = _imageURI.readAsBytesSync();
base64Image = base64.encode(imageBytes);
//
var data = {
'user_email': userEmail,
'user_token': userToken,
'pet': {
"age": petAgeController.text,
"birth_date": bdate,
'eatbone': ,
'ideal_weight': petIdealWeightController.text,
'image': base64Image,
'name': petNameController.text,
"sex": _petSex,
'weight': petWeightController.text,
'guideline_id': '1',
'activity_level_id': '2',
'breed_id': '12',
'user_id': userID,
}
};
// final PET.PetCreate
final pet = await CallApi().createThePet(data, 'pets/create')
}