Total column or dynamic count

[Dan Thorpe]

Hi,

I have an Innodb table with over 30,000 records and over 20 columns, I'm trying to cut down on unused data for optimization.

Basically a few of the columns are totals on user actions, so for example if a user uploads a picture then pictureCount would be pictureCount+1

However the pictures are also inserted into a pictures table.

My question is having the totals in a column a better practise than doing something like ..

SELECT COUNT(`picture`.id), `user`.username
FROM `user`
INNER JOIN `picture` ON `user`.id = `picture`.`userId`
WHERE `user`.id='1'

At the moment there are update queries for the on action as well as queries to insert the pictures, the above would cut out the update queries but is a large count query more intensive?