Django Rest Framework ImageField

I think you can use request.data instead after django rest framework 3.0. The usage of request.DATA and request.FILES is now pending deprecation in favor of a single request.data attribute that contains all the parsed data.

You can check it from here

Following should work if you are posting the image
as base64 string and your serializer set accordingly and it inherits serializer.Serializer

 # views.py 
import base64
import os
from django.core.files import File 

class PhotoList(APIView):
    def post(self,request,format=None):
        serializer = PhotoSerializer(data=request.data)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            # access the data as serializer.validated_data['keys']
            # save the MyPhoto obj lets call it myphoto
            # get the base64 string 
            imgstr64 = serializer.validated_data['corresponding filed in the serializer']
            imgdata = base64.b64decode(imgstr64)
            fname = '/tmp/%s.jpg'%(str(myphoto.id))
            with open(fname,'wb') as f:
                f.write(imgdata)
            imgname = '%s.jpg'%(str(myphoto.id))
            myphoto.image.save(imgname,File(open(fname,'r')))
            os.remove(fname)

Uploading image files with Django Rest Framework:

models.py:

class MyPhoto(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    image = models.ImageField(upload_to='myphoto/%Y/%m/%d/', null=True, max_length=255)

serializers.py:

class MyPhotoSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = MyPhoto
        fields = ('id', 'name', 'image')

views.py:

class PhotoList(APIView):
    def post(self, request, format=None):
        serializer = MyPhotoSerializer(data=request.data)
        if serializer.is_valid():
            serializer.save()
            return Response(serializer.data, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
        else:
            return Response(serializer.errors, status=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST)

Hope it helps someone.

**
Django Rest Framework Image Upload
views.py
    class FileUploadView(APIView):
    permission_classes = []
    parser_class = (FileUploadParser,)

    @csrf_exempt
    def uploatuserprofile( request):

        #fetches specific user image
        if request.method=='GET':
            user_data=JSONParser().parse(request)
            obj=UserProfile.objects.filter(user=user_data["user"])
            serializer=UserProfileSerializer(obj,many=True)
            return JsonResponse(serializer.data,safe=False)



        if request.method == 'POST':
            # print('=====================================================================================>',request.FILES['profile_image'])
            
            # print("##################################################################################### ",request.POST['user'])
            try:
                s = UserProfile.objects.create(user_id = request.POST['user'], profile_image=request.FILES['profile_image'])
                s.save()
            except:
                return JsonResponse('Failed to upload Integrity error',safe=False)

            

            # file_serializer=UserProfileSerializer(request.POST,request.FILES)
        
            # if file_serializer.is_valid():
            #     file_serializer.save()
            return JsonResponse('profile uploded Sucessfully!!',safe=False)
        return JsonResponse('Failed to upload',safe=False)

urls.py of application

 url(r'^uploatuserprofile/$',views.FileUploadView.uploatuserprofile),


urls.py of project
from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path
from django.conf.urls import url,include
urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    url(r'^',include('ChatApp.urls'))
]
if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL,
                          document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

models.py

class UserProfile(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(Users,on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    profile_image = models.ImageField(upload_to='images/', blank=True, null=True)



    def __str__(self):
        return self.profile_image.name





setting.py

STATIC_URL = '/images/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = [
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "images"),

]
STATIC_DIR = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'images')
# Base url to serve media files
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'

# Path where media is stored
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media/')`enter code here`**