Question

I am working with HTML and am attempting to locate the most effecient way to pull images that will be used for banners, backgrounds, etc.

Options

1) Store on server and access them by the server path.
2) Store on a third party site such as imageshack or photobucket and access via URL
3) Store in MYSQL database and access via path. (Not planning on having a ton of images but just throwing this out there.)

I am looking to be effecient in retrieving all images that are going to be displayed on that page but would also like to limit the amount of resources my server will be responsible for. Between these 3 options is there a choice that is overwhelming obvious and I am just not seeing it?

Answers such as the one below would be perfect.(I am looking at my options like this.)
Store on Server – Rely heavily on personal server, downloads etc will be hitting my server, high load/high responsibility
Store on third party site – Images off of server, saves me space and some of the load(But is it worth the hassle?)
DB Link – Quickest, best for tons of images, rely heavily on personal server

If this question is to opinion based then I will assume all 3 ways are equally effective and will close the question.

Answer 1

1. The primary advantage here that is not present in other options is that of caching. If you use a database, it needs to be queried and a server script (.ashx for the .net framework i often use) needs to return this resource. With imageshack etc. I’m not sure, but I think the images retrieved are not cached.
2. The advantage here is that you don’t lose bandwidth and storage space.
3. No advantages I can think of other than if you need to version control your images or something.