I run into a major problem. People are signing up but no one is uploading pictures. How do i make it mandatory to upload pictures before the account is active or during the signup process.
Not at all. You'll have to come up with some code of your own to accomplish this. However, I don't recommend doing this. Instead I recommend not granting registered users particular privileges except uploading. Turn admin approval on - once a user has uploaded, promote him/her to a special group that has advanced privileges.