How to store bulk images using ASP.NET and C#

What is the most efficient way to store and retrieve images?

To Store:

1. Store in Database as a column
2. Store in App开发者_如何学编程lication File system
3. Write the Binarydata of the image to Xml and read it from there

To Retrieve:

1. Generic Handler

I am planning to do it for a social networking site, please advise me.

For social network site you should store images in database as binary data. Here is good article: http://www.dotnetspider.com/resources/460-Store-Retrieve-SQL-Server-database.aspx