How to Send Photos Using Python Telegram Bot API

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1

I’m working on a Telegram bot and need help with sending photos to users. I want to be able to send images either from a file path on my server or from a web URL when someone makes a request.

I found some example code but I’m having trouble understanding how it works since I’m still learning Python. The example shows how to create and send an image but I need something simpler.

Here’s what I’m trying to understand:

if message == '/photo':  # user command
    picture = Image.new('RGB', (256, 256))
    color_base = random.randint(0, 16777216)
    pixel_data = [color_base+x*y for x in range(256) for y in range(256)]  # create image data
    picture.putdata(pixel_data)
    buffer = StringIO.StringIO()
    picture.save(buffer, 'JPEG')
    send_image(img=buffer.getvalue())

Can someone explain how to modify this to send actual image files instead of generating them? I just want to send existing photos when users ask for them.

2

hey emma! that code’s way too complicated. just use bot.send_photo(chat_id, photo=open('path/to/image.jpg', 'rb')) for local files or bot.send_photo(chat_id, photo='http://example.com/image.jpg') for urls. way simpler than generating random images lol

3

That code’s confusing because it’s creating images from scratch. For existing photos, you need a different approach. With local files, open them in binary mode and pass the file object straight to send_photo. For web URLs, just pass the URL string directly or download it first with requests, then send it. Don’t forget error handling - file operations fail if the path’s wrong or the file’s corrupted. And close those file handles when you’re done, especially if your bot sends lots of images. Otherwise you’ll get memory leaks.

4

That example you found is way too complex. I made the same mistake when I started - overthinking it completely. You’ve got two simple options for sending existing photos. If it’s on your server, use bot.send_photo(chat_id, photo=open('your_image.jpg', 'rb')). The ‘rb’ part is important - it reads the file as binary data. For web images, just pass the URL: bot.send_photo(chat_id, photo='https://example.com/image.jpg'). Telegram handles the download automatically. Pro tip: wrap file operations in try-except blocks. File paths break and permissions fail more often than you’d think. Also use with open() statements so files close properly even when things go wrong.