You have basically two options, one is to not mention and set the column for the image. This also minimizes the statement and allows database defaults to be used.
The other option is to explicitly set the column binding to null like this:
File f = new File(...);
If (f.exists()) {
try (InputStream is = new FileInputStream(f);) {
preparedStmt.setBinaryStream(24,is,f.length());
}
} else
preparedStmt.setNull(24, java.sql.Types.BLOB);
The type is a bit tricky, some drivers ignore it or accept a wide range, some are picky. For example PostgreSQL does not like BLOB on a bytea
column. I think for MySQL a BLOB or even VARCHAR works.