Best way to write an image to a Django HttpResponse()

Question

I need to serve images securely to validated users only (i.e. they can't be served as static files). I currently have the following Python view in my Django project, but it seems inefficient. Any ideas for a better way?

def secureImage(request,imagePath):
    response = HttpResponse(mimetype="image/png")
    img = Image.open(imagePath)
    img.save(response,'png')
    return response

(Image is imported from PIL.)

Answer 1

Horribly inefficient. It reencodes the image each time. Try this instead.