image on server to raw/post data

[eluser]anndr0id[/eluser]
I am wondering what the best way to do this in CodeIgniter is.

I have an image on my web server I am trying to post to facebook using the photos_upload functionality of the old rest API.

I need to take the image from its location on the server (var/www/uploads/image.jpg) and convert it to raw data to send to the facebook API - anyone have a suggestion on the best way to implement this functionality?

Thanks