From Michael Swan's Practical Usage of English:

We use 'tall' mostly for people, trees, buildings with many floors, and a few other things which are higher than they are wide (e.g. factory chimneys or electricity pylons). Example:
I'd like something cool to drink in a tall glass.

In other cases we usually prefer 'high':
Mount Elbruz is the highest mountain in Europe.

In measurements, we use 'tall' for people, but we often use 'high' for things. Compare:
I'm six feet tall.
That tree is about eighty feet high/tall.

We use 'high', not 'tall', to talk about distances above the ground. A child standing on a chair may be 'higher' than her mother, although she's probably not 'taller'.