Question about file uploads

[eluser]thurting[/eluser]
Hello,

I am working on a project that requires users to upload an image file via a form and have some questions. I would like to store these images securely so users cannot view them. I'm thinking about saving them above the web root, but I would also like to be able to view them through a web based admin area I am setting up. Is there any trickery (Apache or PHP based) that would allow me to have the files stored on the web root of my site, but only be available to users with admin credentials (maybe set up a script that does auth, then spits out the files with proper headers - e.g. web root at /htdocs and http://mysite.com/images/view/blah.jpg will do auth and read a file at /private/images/blah.jpg)? If not, I'm thinking the best course of action is simply to store the images with random names so it would be difficult for a user without access to the db or fs to access them.

Thanks.