There are names for people who use the blob field of a MySQL db to store images. Moron, and Idiot are just two examples, but if other circumstances exist, you can say newbie as well. As a newbie I thought myself that storing images in a DB would be a nice clean solution. Voices of experience said otherwise. Over the years as I grew more experienced I began to understand myself, why putting images into a MySQL Db is a Bad Thing[tm].
Use blobs to store small amounts of transient data. Use the FS to store something as large and semi-static as images. Sorry if this seems rough / harsh, but if it causes a person to think twice before using MySQL as a file storage solution, then it's justified. There are a few less polite names for people who develop software like this that I have to maintain later.
Are you going to write queries that involve the data *IN* the file as part of the search, sort, or filtering?
PHP has the facilities built-in to perform this search/sort/filter - while their use isn't always the cleanest solution, anything is better than putting files in a db. If you can't find the features you require, then feel free to use external tools - anything to avoid db file storage.
