An example of a controller that gets files from the storage folder.

FileController.php

<?php

// Use statements.

class FileController extends Controller
{
    public function show(ShowFileRequest $request, $slug)
    {
        $media    = Media::where('slug', $slug)->first();
        $handler  = new \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\File\File($media->getPath());
        $lifetime = 31556926;

        // Preparing headers.
        $file_time = $handler->getMTime(); // Get the last modified time for the file (Unix timestamp).

        $header_content_type   = $handler->getMimeType();
        $header_content_length = $handler->getSize();
        $header_etag           = md5($file_time . $media->getPath());
        $header_last_modified  = gmdate('r', $file_time);
        $header_expires        = gmdate('r', $file_time + $lifetime);

        $headers = [
            'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="' . $media->file_name . '"',
            'Last-Modified'       => $header_last_modified,
            'Cache-Control'       => 'must-revalidate',
            'Expires'             => $header_expires,
            'Pragma'              => 'public',
            'Etag'                => $header_etag
        ];

        // If the file is an image or a pdf.
        if ($header_content_length > 0)
        {
            if ( is_array(getimagesize($media->getPath())) )
            {
                $headers['Content-Disposition'] = 'inline; filename="' . $media->file_name . '"';
            }
            elseif ($header_content_type === 'application/pdf')
            {
                $headers['Content-Disposition'] = 'inline; filename="' . $media->file_name . '"';
                $headers['Accept-Ranges'] = 'bytes';
            }
        }

        // Resource cache:
        $h1 = isset($_SERVER['HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE']) && $_SERVER['HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE'] == $header_last_modified;
        $h2 = isset($_SERVER['HTTP_IF_NONE_MATCH']) && str_replace('"', '', stripslashes($_SERVER['HTTP_IF_NONE_MATCH'])) == $header_etag;

        if ($h1 || $h2) {
            return Response::make('', 304, $headers);
        }

        $headers = array_merge($headers, [
            'Content-Type'   => $header_content_type,
            'Content-Length' => $header_content_length
        ]);

        return Response::make(file_get_contents($media->getPath()), 200, $headers);
    }
}