Best way to do this?

[johnj]

1) as this is a charity event, link to a folder is good.

2) it depends on what you want the user experience to be. Ideal to go with server side processing but you can use javascript or jquery on client side if your site is "candy/ cute". It also depends on what is easier for you , if you have great JavaScript skill, then use that.

[johnj]

3) each person/room/date as a separate field with a 1 for each for each picture is the right way.

Key1,person,room should be in one table and in the other table it should be key2,key1 ,date,link to picture

Create the db design on paper and then make a decision - I need not be always correct.

[johnj]

....not sure how it being for charity is relevant here?

Usually this sort of sites are temporary, I mean for one event in a year. Also, people involved in this charity are likely to be local people. Hence, we do not need a highly secure site by saving pictures in a database. But if you have the time and money go ahead and save all pictures in a table.