filter created from my image

I'm still having trouble with a filter I have created from my own images. I don't have trouble creating the image in the work space. When I've completed the filter, I click "save" at the bottom of the work space. The filter is then opened in the original window where the other filters are saved and it becomes an slightly altered life preserver without any of the characteristics of my created filter.
I've learned not to submit these to the library because they are not anything like what I designed. This problem happens when I use Photoshop FF plug-in or when I use FF directly from my desk top.

Are you correctly connecting the final node to the Result node? If not, IIRC Filter Forge will connect the closest node to the Result, which might not give the expected result.

Winnie, a filter is not an image, but "a way to produce images", an algorithm, a recipe. Filter can be applied to any image, including your images, our life preserver or any other image.

We use the same image (life preserver) as a standard preview because it helps people understand how a particular filter would look when applied to an image. Again, the key idea here is that a good filter must be universal, i.e. able to process any image, not only the image it was intended to use with.