Crop, blurred background or black bars?
When a wide video becomes a vertical clip, you choose between filling the screen and keeping the whole picture. Here is how to decide.
Published
Crop to fill
Cropping keeps a vertical slice of the picture and fills the whole screen with it. It works best when one person or one object carries the moment: a talking head, a speaker on a stage, a product in someone's hands. Drag the frame over what matters; the editor shows exactly what the clip will keep.
The cost is everything outside the frame. If two people talk to each other from opposite sides of the shot, a crop will cut one of them out.
Whole frame on a blurred background
This keeps the full picture in the middle of the screen and fills the space above and below with a soft, blurred copy of the same video. Nothing is lost, and the colours of the background match the scene, so it still feels like one picture. It suits interviews with two people, slides, screen recordings and wide shots.
Whole frame on black bars
The same idea with plain black above and below. It is the classic look many creators use on purpose: clean, with no movement around the picture, and with room for a title, which you can add in the Clip Editor once the clip is exported.
How to decide quickly
If the moment is about a face, crop. If it is about something wide, such as two people, a whiteboard or a screen, keep the whole frame and pick blurred or black to taste. The editor previews all three on your video before you export, so you can simply try them.
Step-by-step guideResize for TikTok, Reels and Shorts
Change a video clip to 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9 for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Crop, zoom or keep the whole frame over a blurred background.