What is the image_picker package, and how does it provide a simpler way to let users select an existing photo or take a new one, compared to directly using the lower level camera package?

The image_picker package provides a much simpler, higher level interface specifically for the common task of letting a user either pick an existing image from their device's photo gallery or capture a brand new photo using the camera, handling the underlying native camera or gallery interface for you, and it does not offer the fine grained control of a fully custom live camera preview, but for many everyday app features, such as letting a user set a profile picture, this simpler approach requires far less code than manually integrating the full camera package.

final picker = ImagePicker();
final image = await picker.pickImage(source: ImageSource.gallery);