I works since 2001 with IMatch, before with some other DAMs like Portfolio.
Independent from the DAM I am still today sure (well, for me), that a good filenaming-strategy is the basic of a good DAM-system.
I tried several systems, but I like still the system with long filenames, containing several things, what are useful to know, even if I see only a file on a stick, without any DAM. In this case (and many other cases like backup and so on) I know quite good, what this file is, simply from the filename.
The only drawback is, that a long filename for some programs is a bit "clumpsy", because they do not expect such long filenames. But IM5 is here quite good, specialy for example the layout for the file window.
And yes, of course I do not deliver a file with such a long filename to my clients (nor private), because for them this helps not that much. For giving shorter filenames I can use also some tools in IM5, like the renamer.
And finally, I want remark, if you have a consistent system, IMatch (also 3.6) makes it very easy to change a filename-system slightly, like I did also 2-3 times in the past 12 years.
My current filename-system is as follows:
20040303-1455-011283-s-kun-brunner-machines.nef
19990422-1600-034000-c-pri-designstuhl-yellowish.jpg
20130315-0724-025256-s-kun-monika-at-beach.jpg
yyyymmdd-hhmm-unique-*-***-text.ext
In front Year-month-day without any separators (separators are also possible of course like yyyy-mm-dd
Followed by a - and then hour and minutes.
Then a - and the follows a unique number. This number is created by a IMatch-variable and does count upwards.
The first * stays for "from where comes the image" (like from a scanner or digital cam...)
The second *** stays for "for whom is this image" (like for a client or private or ...)
Finally after the - comes a "free text", what I find very useful. It describes in SHORT words, what the image is, like names or describings like "dog at sea" or "vacations-venezia" and so on.
In earlier years I shortend such text, so that each file had the same lenght. Nowadays I leave it open, so that each file can have a different length.
IM5 give us with its power a lot of possibilities to format such long filenames.
We can also user parts of the name for data-driven things. In my case I have categories with data-driven cats for different clients (the *** in my files) or for other things.
The most important thing in my opinion is, that the filenames does have a kind of a system and hence are consistent.
Maybe this helps some users or gives some ideas.
I try to add more steps from my workflow here, from time to time.
Of course, other ideas are always welcome, surely also for other users.