How to Crop a Video Online — Convert Landscape to Portrait for TikTok
Cropping a video changes its visible area — removing content from the edges while keeping the centre. This is the most common way to reformat horizontal video for vertical social media platforms, remove unwanted elements from the frame, or focus attention on a specific subject.
Aspect Ratios Explained
An aspect ratio is the width-to-height relationship of a video frame. The most important ones: 16:9 (landscape) — the standard for YouTube, TV, and most cameras. 9:16 (portrait) — the standard for TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat Stories. 1:1 (square) — used for Instagram feed posts and some Facebook content.
When you upload a 16:9 video to TikTok, the platform adds black bars or blurred fill on the sides. Cropping to 9:16 before uploading fills the entire screen and dramatically improves the viewing experience on mobile.
- TikTok, Reels, Shorts — always 9:16 portrait for full-screen coverage
- YouTube long-form, Vimeo — 16:9 landscape
- Instagram feed posts — 4:5 portrait gets the most screen real estate in the feed
- Zoom recordings, interview footage — 16:9 is the natural format
Landscape to Portrait: What You Lose
Converting a 16:9 video to 9:16 means cropping out the left and right thirds of the frame — the centre third fills the screen. If your subject is centred in the original shot (a talking head, a single product, a centred action), the crop works perfectly. If your original frame has important elements at the edges, they will be cut off.
Professional social media video production accounts for this. When shooting for both YouTube (16:9) and TikTok (9:16), keep your main subject in the centre third of the frame. This "safe zone" approach means both the landscape and portrait versions work without any frame repositioning.
- Keep your main subject centred in the original frame for a clean 16:9 → 9:16 crop
- Review the output carefully — text and graphics at the edges of the original will be cropped out
- Talking heads, product demos, and centred subjects almost always crop well to 9:16
How to Crop a Video Using MediaFormatter
Go to the Crop Video tool and upload your video file (MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, FLV, or WMV, up to 500 MB). Select your target aspect ratio: 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, or 4:3. Confirm you own the file and click Crop video. The tool applies a centred crop at the selected ratio and outputs an MP4.
The output resolution preserves the maximum height or width of the original that fits the target ratio. A 1920×1080 (16:9) video cropped to 9:16 outputs at 607×1080 — the full height preserved with the 9:16 ratio applied to the width.