Whether you decide to shoot your still lifes using film or digital technology is really a personal choice. Each option produces a slightly different end product, so you must understand the advantages and limitations of each method.

As finicky as color slide film can be to work with, it's ideal for taking object and still-life shots where color is a critical element in the composition. Slide film is great for rendering crisp, sharp images, especially when shooting outdoors with wide apertures and slow shutter speeds (with a tri-pod-mounted camera, of course).

If you're going for a grainy, more painterly effect, switch to fast color print film, which is also a good choice for shooting indoors in artificial light. You can use color slide film indoors as well, as long as you remember to select the right film for your lighting conditions.

Shooting still lifes with digital cameras is great; the flexibility of being able to tell immediately whether or not you got the shot, plus the option of adjusting color and contrast in the digital darkroom, are big advantages.

Black-and-white photography can yield some fantastic images when photographing things like flowers. Because color balance doesn't matter, you can bring flowers inside and use photofloods or window light to create wonderful shadows and highlights.