Obsidian by Emily Smirle

Hmm! I'm going to drop off a critique!

So what's good: basically you nailed the color and how the filter works. I think the fact that you got control over that's great.

What's probably going to need more work:
Obsidian has a more specific look. While other minerals may blend in, the way this filter presents that I think is a bit weak. I'm going to specifically talk about the default preset given that's what I saw first. Obsidian first off is a volcanic glass, basically lava cools super fast creating these rocks that basically have minimum crystal growth. That's why when they break / chip they make that distinctive round pattern fr om where they chip. This filter doesn't have that distinctive pattern going on! But I guess I can look over that in a sense, given certain obsidian can be bulgy. I went around digging some references and found this: http://www.galleries.com/minerals/min.../obs-3.jpg

Neat!

I figure in terms of the filter here's a quick idea / remedy. One of the tips I can safely say is that nature likes both variation and uniformity. What's really cool is that you made those white lines look wavy and random. What's probably not so cool is that those lines look uniformly noisy. Nature kinda plays games here, it likes to add detail in some areas but somehow make straight lines somewhere else.

If you ever see satellite photographs you'll always see rivers that have really windy paths but as the areas become flatter the water paths spread creating a delta. In a sense, what this filter simply needs is a treatment of both smooth lines and variation. But you can't under-do or over-do both those effects. This is where it's tricky, and it's also wh ere the fine line between fine-filters vs amazing filters rest.

Either way in summary as a suggestion: 1. probably look at actual references of obsidian and try further to mimic those rounding patterns that happen when chipping occurs due to extreme cooling. 2. the other minerals in the obsidian should have variable line qualities.

This is just a passing suggestion. I think any filter can do better always. Just keep pushing it. Look at references! good luck.

If you got questions, drop them off in the forums! I'd jump at it. Pretty sure others will too.