Issue updating user account with avatar laravel - laravel

Question

So I was able to submit the form to allow an avatar to be uploaded and changed which worked. Now I am trying to allow all the user details to be updated too.
If I just try to change the username or email and submit, the page is reloaded with the original content. When I upload a new avatar and then try to submit I get the error "Non-static method Illuminate\Http\Request::input() should not be called statically".
*edited*** I've just realised Im saying if the user uploads an image then update the form. Whereas I want the form to submit whether or not an image has been uploaded. How could I change my update_avatar function for this to work?
web.php
Route::get('profile','userController#profile');
Route::post('profile', 'userController#update_avatar');
userController
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Auth;
use Image;
class UserController extends Controller
{
//
public function profile()
{
return view('profile', array('user' => Auth::user()) );
}
public function update_avatar(Request $request)
{
if($request->hasFile('avatar')){
$avatar = $request->file('avatar');
$filename = time() . '.' . $avatar->getClientOriginalExtension();
Image::make($avatar)->resize(300,300)->save( public_path('/uploads/avatars/' . $filename) );
$user = Auth::user();
$user->avatar = $filename;
$user->name = Request::input('username');
$user->email = Request::input('email');
$user->save();
}
return view('profile', array('user' => Auth::user()) );
}
}
profile.blade.php
<img src="/uploads/avatars/{{ $user->avatar }}" style="width:150px;height:150px;float:left;border-radius:50%;margin-right:25px">
<h2>{{ $user->name }}'s Profile</h2>
<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="/profile" method="post">
<label>Update Profile Image</label>
<input type="file" name="avatar">
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">
<label>Username</label>
<input type="text" name="username" class="form-control" value="{{ $user->name }}">
<label>Email</label>
<input type="email" name="email" class="form-control" value="{{ $user->email }}">
<input type="submit" class=" btn btn-sm btn-light" style="color:#2b2b2b;">
</form>

Answer 1

change the code
$user->name = $request->input('username');
$user->email = $request->input('email');
Please see the docs for more information:
http://laravel.com/docs/5.0/controllers#dependency-injection-and-controllers

Answer 2

in top of the namespace declaration in your controller ,
replace the following
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
to
use Request;