filepaths in a db

Greetings all, I'm looking for a tutorial or some assistance in explaning how store and then open and read a binary file using php/mysql. I've got a few tutorial about storing the binary data within a mysql table from Kevin Yank, phpbuilder, etc. but I've heard that it's sometime better to keep your binaries on the server and not in the database. Thus, if the developer just keeps the file path in a VARCHAR column like: C:\apache\images\house.jpg C:\apache\images\tree.jpg etc... and then directs that file be fopen() fread(), etc. it will work without the added overhead. I'm a bit lost in what happens after the filepaths are inserted into the database and what steps follow in the script so that they can be opened and read. Any help, URL's or tutorials will be of assistance. Thank you. TR