How to turn a horizontal video into a vertical one

The short answer

Set the output to 9:16 (for example 1080×1920), then either crop the wide frame to a vertical slice centered on your subject, move that slice as the subject moves, or fit the whole frame inside with bars or a blurred background. Pick a short clip first; vertical platforms reward short, tight moments.

Three ways to go vertical

• Crop. Keep a 9:16 slice of the frame. From a 1920×1080 source that's roughly a 608-pixel-wide strip, about a third of the picture. Best for one person talking to camera.
• Reframe with movement. Keyframe the crop so it follows the subject, or use an automatic reframing tool. Best when people move or two people talk.
• Pad. Fit the full wide frame in the middle and fill the top and bottom with a color, a blurred copy or captions. Nothing is lost, but the picture is small on a phone.

Free and built-in tools

Adobe Premiere has an Auto Reframe feature that follows the action when changing aspect ratio; Adobe's help pages describe it with slower and faster motion-tracking settings. Many phone and desktop editors offer a 9:16 canvas with a movable crop.

From the command line, ffmpeg can make a centered vertical crop in one step: ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "crop=trunc(ih*9/32)*2:ih" -c:a copy vertical.mp4. That keeps the full height and a centered 9:16 slice (the arithmetic keeps the width an even number, which most encoders need). It doesn't track anything, so it only suits a centered subject.

How to do it in MediaFind

Create, the free timeline editor in MediaFind, can reframe for vertical, square or wide and render on your computer. Its advantage is the step before: finding the moment worth posting.

1. Search your library for the moment, such as the part where she explains the pricing change, and open the result at its timestamp.
2. Add the clip to a Create timeline and trim it to the part you want.
3. Choose the vertical 9:16 reframe and adjust the framing so your subject stays in view.
4. Burn in captions and add a title; most people watch short video with the sound off.
5. Render to MP4. With Pro, Auto-Reel can also suggest short highlights from a long recording to start from.

Framing tips

• Keep eyes about a third of the way down the frame and leave room at the bottom for captions and the app's own buttons.
• Screen recordings and slides rarely crop well. Pad them, or zoom into one area at a time.
• Check text on screen. Titles designed for 16:9 get cut off; add new ones in the vertical edit.
• Export from the highest-quality source you have. A vertical crop of 1080p footage is already much lower resolution than the full frame.

Related workflows

Vertical clips usually come from long recordings. See making a highlight reel, burning in captions and removing filler words, or how social media managers and streamers use it.

Frequently asked questions

What size is a vertical video?

The aspect ratio is 9:16. A common resolution is 1080 pixels wide by 1920 tall.

How do I make a horizontal video vertical without cropping?

Pad it: place the full wide frame in the middle of a 9:16 canvas and fill the space above and below with a color, a blurred copy or captions.

Can I convert a video to vertical for free?

Yes. ffmpeg can crop to 9:16 for free, and MediaFind's free Create editor can reframe for vertical and render an MP4 on your computer.

Will a vertical crop lose quality?

You keep only about a third of the width of a 16:9 frame, so start from the highest-resolution source you have.