Formatting
How do I turn a horizontal video into a vertical one without ruining it?
Short answer
Don't centre-crop by default — that's what ruins it. Use a crop window that tracks whoever is speaking, or stack the footage as a split-screen with the video on top and something else below. Centre-cropping only works when the subject stays centred, which in real footage is rare.
The detail
Going from 16:9 to 9:16 throws away about 60% of the frame's width. The only question is which 60%, and the wrong answer is 'always the sides'. A centre crop on an interview lands between two people; a centre crop on a gameplay recording cuts off the HUD; a centre crop on a presentation removes the slides.
Face-aware tracking solves most of it. The crop window follows the detected face, and when the speaker changes it moves — smoothly, ideally with a short hold so it doesn't oscillate between two people who are talking over each other.
Split-screen is the honest fallback when nothing else works. Video on top, gameplay or captions below, or two speakers stacked. It looks deliberate rather than broken, and it keeps content that would otherwise be cropped out.
Blurred-background padding — the original frame centred on a blurred enlargement of itself — is the weakest option. It preserves everything and wastes half the screen. Use it only when the composition genuinely can't be cropped, like wide landscape footage.
- ▸Shoot wider and sharper than you need if you know clips are coming — a 4K source survives cropping far better than 1080p.
- ▸Keep on-screen text and lower-thirds inside the central 9:16 safe area when filming.
- ▸Check the top and bottom: TikTok and Reels overlay UI there, and a caption placed too low disappears behind it.
Follow-up questions
Does cropping lose quality?
Yes — you're using a smaller region of the sensor's output and scaling it up. A 1080p source cropped to 9:16 gives you roughly 600px of width to stretch back to 1080. Start from the highest resolution you have.
What about gameplay footage with a facecam?
Stack it: facecam in the top third, gameplay below. Cropping gameplay to vertical usually destroys the part that makes it readable.
Is 9:16 the only option?
It's the full-screen format on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. 4:5 works in feed on Instagram but leaves bars on the others.
Also asked as: convert 16:9 to 9:16 · how to make a landscape video vertical · crop horizontal video for TikTok