·3 min read·Guides
How to Turn a Horizontal Video Into a Vertical One (Without Cutting People Out)
Four ways to convert a 16:9 landscape video to 9:16 for TikTok, Shorts and Reels: crop and follow the speaker, split screen, fit with a blurred background, or the whole shot in the middle with a title above and captions below. When to use each, and how in CapCut, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or automatically.
To turn a horizontal (16:9) video into a vertical (9:16) one, choose one of four layouts. Crop to the person speaking and follow them as they move (best for one speaker). Stack two speakers in a split screen (interviews and podcasts). Fit the whole shot over a blurred copy of itself (gameplay, wide shots). Or place the whole 16:9 shot in the middle of the vertical frame with a title above and captions below (podcasts, screen shares). Export at 1080 × 1920. Premiere Pro's Auto Reframe and DaVinci Resolve's Smart Reframe crop automatically; AI clipping tools such as Boostlix Clipper do all four layouts and add captions.
We make Boostlix Clipper, which finds the moments worth clipping in a long video and exports them with captions. Free trial, no card needed.
Most long-form video is shot horizontally (16:9), and TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are vertical (9:16, 1080 × 1920). A simple centre crop throws away two thirds of the frame and often the person who is speaking. Here are the four layouts that work, and how to choose.
The four layouts
| Layout | What it looks like | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crop and follow the speaker | A tall slice of the frame that moves to keep the speaker centred | One person talking, vlogs, interviews with cutaways | Two people talking at once, wide shots |
| Split screen | Two crops stacked top and bottom | Two-person podcasts, interviews, duo streams | Uneven framing between the halves |
| Fit with blurred background | The whole 16:9 shot in the middle, a blurred copy filling the rest | Gameplay, sport, anything where the whole frame matters | The video is smaller; add big captions |
| Landscape in frame, with title and captions | The whole 16:9 shot a little above centre, a headline on the band above, captions on the band below | Podcasts, screen shares, product demos, two people at a table | Needs a short headline to use the top band well |
The last one is the "podcast clip" look that has become common on Reels and Shorts: the video stays intact, the title gives context in the first second, and the captions never cover anyone's face.
How to choose
- Is one person speaking most of the time? Crop and follow.
- Are two people reacting to each other? Split screen, or landscape in frame.
- Does the moment depend on the whole picture (a play, a demo, a wide room)? Fit with blur, or landscape in frame.
- Is the clip mostly words (an opinion, a story)? Crop and follow, with large captions.
How to do it in common editors
CapCut: set the project ratio to 9:16, scale and position the clip, and use the canvas background (blur or a colour) for the empty space. Add text for the title and captions. Exact menu names differ between the phone and desktop apps.
Premiere Pro: create a 1080 × 1920 sequence and apply Auto Reframe to crop and follow the action automatically, or scale the clip down and place a blurred duplicate below it for the fit-with-blur look.
DaVinci Resolve: set a vertical timeline resolution; Resolve Studio's Smart Reframe finds the subject and repositions the crop. For the blurred background, stack a scaled-up, blurred copy under the original.
In every editor, export at 1080 × 1920 and check the result on a phone: the app's buttons cover the bottom and right side, so keep faces and captions away from those edges.
Doing it automatically, with captions
If you are cutting clips out of a long video, Boostlix Clipper handles the layout as part of the export:
- Follow speaker detects faces and follows whoever is talking, cutting with the shots; on a wide shot where it cannot tell who is talking, it shows both people.
- Both speakers and Grid stack two people, or up to four in a 2×2 grid.
- Fit whole shot puts the full frame over a blurred copy.
- Landscape in frame and Square in frame place a 16:9 or square cut of the shot in the middle, with the title on the band above for the whole clip and captions centred on the band below, on black, navy or a blurred background.
Captions, a short headline, zooms and jump cuts are added in the same export, in 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 or 16:9. The Podcast look sets up the landscape-in-frame layout in one click, and the Gaming look the fit-with-blur one.
For still images, such as thumbnails and post graphics, our free image resizer converts to every social size with a blurred or solid background.