The process of generating a thumbnail to be sent to PhotoDNA is complicated and may fail. It also does not currently work for files which have been deleted (ArchivedFile objects). If a thumbnail cannot be generated, then the source file could be sent to PhotoDNA for scanning if it is in a supported format.
The list of supported formats is relatively large, such that most image files could be sent directly to PhotoDNA. However, just sending the source file may cause problems if the original file is very large.
This also allows reducing the number of images affected by T353853, as images that are at least 160px by 160px but no more than 320px wide will now be scannable.