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Guide

Convert a landscape video to portrait

From 16:9 to 9:16 – for TikTok, Instagram Reel, Instagram Story, YouTube Shorts. Three ways, and when each one is right.

Three ways from 16:9 to 9:16

1. With bars

The whole video stays visible, but small: it fills only about 32 % of the height, the rest is black. Quick to do, but it looks out of place in a portrait feed.

2. Crop

A 9:16 crop fills the whole screen but keeps only about 32 % of the width. Good when the subject stays in one place – the crop has to sit on the subject, not rigidly in the middle.

3. Whole picture with a border

The whole picture stays, and the border at the top and bottom is filled: blurred from the video itself, zoomed or in a colour. Right when the action is spread across the full width.

And black bars in the video?

If the video already has bars – say, a cinema format inside 16:9 – they need to go first. Otherwise they end up in the crop. More on that
A crop that follows the subject
The whole picture with a filled border

How it works with FrameJet

  1. Upload the landscape video. FrameJet detects burned-in black bars on its own.
  2. For each format, choose “Crop” and move the frame, or choose “Whole picture”. The preview shows which edges the app covers.
  3. Export and download every format – one by one or as a ZIP.

TikTok, Instagram Reel, Instagram Story, YouTube Shorts share an aspect ratio: one crop covers all of them, as long as you don’t set anything different for a platform. Feed, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn join in the same pass when you choose their formats. All dimensions are in the guide.

Try it with your own video

Free, no credit card needed.

Convert your video to 9:16 now

Frequently asked questions

Do I lose part of the picture when converting to portrait?

With a crop, yes: it keeps about 32 % of the width. If you don’t want to lose anything, use the whole picture with a filled border.

Does the video get blurry when converting?

Not if the source video is large enough. For a 1080 × 1920 portrait crop, the landscape video needs at least 1920 pixels of height, i.e. 4K; from a 1080p video the crop is upscaled. With “whole picture”, the full resolution is kept.

Does it work the other way round, from portrait to landscape?

Yes. For YouTube or LinkedIn, a portrait video usually stays fully in frame, with a filled border on the left and right.

Do I have to crop again for every platform?

No. TikTok, Instagram Reel, Instagram Story, YouTube Shorts use the same format and share one crop. Only the feed, landscape and square formats need their own.

Convert a landscape video to portrait (16:9 to 9:16) — FrameJet