dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Plants communicate with one another. Here in a world where there are two crops of tomatoes per year, a group of young tomatoes ask an older tomato... what happens at the end of the season, do we die and rot or go to heaven? The image tells where good tomatoes go at the end of the season. Storytelling is a task I try to accomplish in photos.

I did a lot of work on the original shot working on shadow and bright reflections using my Paintshop Pro 2023. Then the nice clean result lacked spice. After many tries with Dynamic Autopainter there was an almost, but the original was perhaps better. Tried my array of Jixipix, not satisfying. Then Lunipic was experimented with, by chance I clicked on Flame... ouch too strong. I then used the slider and reduced Flame to 15% overlay on the original. Just the right spice. I like the speckling of the background, it was uniformly green. Flame added a touch of reflection in the foreground. The result is here:

GOOD TOMATOES GO TO HEINZ NOT HEAVEN

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L-Fox

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Love your story, and the pp worked out great!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Thank you I-Fox for the thumbs up. Yes, Linda getting the spice right was a task the end result represents perhaps 20 tries with differing PP approaches. As you can see the teaching tomato lacked a stem... that was built with the clone tool. The flash was toned down with the clone tool set at a large area coverage with a lower opacity setting.

The "Flames Art Effect" using Lunapic was way too much, thankfully they have a percent overlay slider. Lunapic is a three-ring circus of effects... all free to use. Images are downloaded and do require up-sizing, but with our AI in editor and plugins, this is not a problem.

(Download)

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

I like your final results. Very artsy Without the back story I would never have come up with the tale you wrote.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Yes, NTFrank, Titles, and back stories direct the viewer to the image story. A simple title like "Only If You Are Good" or "If Not Heaven Where" would have required viewers to think and connect. The back story puts the viewer into the photo identifying with the tomatoes.

Bit of information unrelated: Evan Sharbonea's now 14 year old book on Trick Photography is available as a free PDF. I bought it from him during edition 1. He covers a wide range in 192 pages. Don't tell Linda, even a flying cat.
https://www.academia.edu/17679977/Trick_Photography_and_Special_Effects

veralisa296 Loc: New Jersey

Great show!!! Heinz may be interested in your result, for commercial use! Beautiful arrangement, exceptionly colorful and just plain attractive. Great results!

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Dpullum, we should not forget who put those "eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can."

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Thank you veralisa296, admittedly I am tempted to contact Kraft Heinz Company. The "send the very best" statement of Hallmark Cards stood tall for decades. Heinz is the brand thought of when we think of Catsup, yep in my frig now.

"Beautiful arrangement, exceptionally colorful " Arrangement and Color do make a difference. I have an experiment of a "toxic to stomach ulcer" meal in which the arrangement of the components and the background colors made a difference. I will eventually present it here.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

OK-OK, I missed the Trivia Game question.... eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can.
"It was Contadina. "How did they get those 8 great tomatoes in that itty bitty can" was a jingle used in TV and radio commercials of the 1950s (sung by Ace Brigode & His Fourteen Virginians), and variations of the slogan appeared in newspaper ads."
https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question137770.html

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

The end of us all Alive for seemingly minutes, then into the bottle in the next

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Indeed, Life is short. The Baptist Minister back in my youth promised life immortal... he died one month later~!!! He had said ashes to ashes and dust to dust, but he was embalmed paid for by the church. The local undertaker made a lot of money with the finest.

Our ashes would fit in several Ketchup bottles, but more legal are urns fitting the specifications. An urn for tolerated pets like Stella, costs $15, and for us at $22 upward.... at least the plastic will not break if dropped.

A friend had her daughter's ashes in a box in the back seat of her car... her daughter disappeared years before and fell into drugs and prostitution. The girl was a thrill seeker and died in a skydive accident. After a month mom spread her ashes into the woods where the girl played as a child.

Check out Caitlin Doughty @AskAMortician. We can be used as composing in six states... even on tomato fields.

https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/

FotoHog Loc: on Cloud 9

That's true. Plants do communicate with each other.
Once, when a jar of strawberry jam was opened one strawberry was heard saying to another "if we had not been in the same bed together we wouldn't be in this jam." . . .

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Beautifully done. No story without the processed image. The original is just an uninspiring still life. The completed image, which I saw first, had me developing my own story. As it turned out I was pretty close

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

"The completed image, which I saw first, had me developing my own story. As it turned out I was pretty close. "Right Curmudgeon the word Tomato on the label makes the statement link.

Yes, I agree that the still life I started with lacked character, tomatoes, and catsup... aaaa ya... OK ... Boring.
The mottling of the background the the reflection really brought it to life.

Many of the things I did ended up with flat red circles without any 3D look...

I do not recall if the chicken came before the egg or vice-versa. Usually, I do not buy the tomatoes on a stem... expensive. Having grown up in the country we planted a full flat of tomatoes each spring. Spring in Flint Michigan area started June 15, before that, you had to put cold caps around the new plants. Back then it could frost in early June!!

Jimmy my neighbor and I would have tomato fights at the end of the season throwing ripened tomatoes at each other. At today's prices, we trashed a thousand dollars easily. As a family, we canned tomatoes in the fall to make chili during the winter. During WW2, if you did not grow food you did not eat well.