The Registan at Night: Where to Put the Tripod

This is not a stroll, it is a shoot, so the text stays short and practical.

The floodlights go on as it gets dark: around half past eight in summer, by six in winter. For the first twenty or thirty minutes after they come on, the sky is still blue and the façades are already gold. That is the frame people come here for. After that the sky turns black and the contrast goes hard.

Three spots everyone shoots from. The steps opposite the square give you the wide shot: all three madrasahs fit the frame at 24–35 mm. The middle of the square puts the Tilla-Kari portal square on, pure symmetry. The corner by the Sher-Dor gives you the tigers above the portal up close, and for that you need 70 mm or longer. The crowd gathers on the steps, so that is where you go first.

You can set up a tripod on the square until 21:30. Keep it low: from a metre and a half up, the mosaic flares under the floodlights.

White balance: not auto. The floodlights are warm, the sky is cold, and the camera will split the difference and hand you grey. Set 4000–4500 K and fine-tune afterwards.

Exposure: the façades blow out easily. Meter on the mosaic; the sky you can pull back out of the shadows. If you are shooting on a phone, turn on night mode and hold your hands still for three seconds.

People in the frame are not in the way. One figure by the portal gives you scale; without it the madrasahs look like a model.

In summer the lighting stays on until 23:00, though after ten it is dimmed. Leave before it goes out.