How to Crop and Export Videos to Instagram

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

With more than 500 million active daily users Instagram has become one of the largest photo and video sharing platforms in the world. Videos posted on this platform have a sixty-second limit, but Instagram users must also pay close attention to the aspect ratio of their videos. Instagram allows you to upload videos in square (1:1), landscape (16:9) and portrait (4:5) aspect ratios and in this article we will show you how to export videos that have an aspect ratio that matches the one demanded by Instagram.

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How to crop and export videos to instagram

Best cropping tool – Wondershare Filmora

In order to create videos that will get thousands of likes on Instagram, you need a video editing software that will enable you to adjust the aspect ratio of the videos you want to upload to this platform.Wondershare Filmora is a video editing software that provides support for a large number of different video file formats and it will enable you to crop your videos and get them ready for online use.

How to crop videos for instagram in Filmora

Unless you shoot your video directly from the Instagram app, the aspect ratio of your videos will not match the square aspect ratio used on Instagram. The only solution to this issue is to crop the video and change its aspect ratio so it fits one of the commonly used aspect ratios on Instagram.

Step 1: Download Filmora and Import the file into the software

In order to start cropping your videos, you first must install the Filmora video editing software on your computer. Open the video editor in the Full Feature Mode, and then click on the Import drop-down menu and select the Import Media Files option.

Step 2: Drag and Drop the video file onto the Timeline

Now that the video clip you want to edit is in the editor's media library, drag it and drop it to the timeline.

Step 3: Crop videos for Instagram

1. Landscape (16:9)

Chances are that the camera you used to record your video clip recorded the footage in the landscape aspect ratio. Before you can export your video clip, you must first check the resolution and frame rate of the clip you want to export. Right-click on the clip in the media panel and select Properties. After you found out this information, click on the Export button located just below the media panel.

Once the new window appears, you should click on the Format icon positioned in the upper left corner of the screen. Select the MP4 format, name your file and select the folder where the file will be exported.

Click on the Settings button and then set the Quality of the video to Best and select the HD Optimized option in the Encoder menu. Choose the Resolution and Frame Rate that match the ones in your video and change the Bitrate in the Audio settings to 128 Kbps and hit OK.

2. Portrait (4:3)

In order to create a video that has a portrait aspect ratio, you need to crop it. You can do this by clicking on the Crop and Pan tool, located in the timeline tools. Use an online aspect ratio calculator to find the exact resolution that matches the portrait aspect ratio. Once you made the calculations return to Filmora and click on the Manually option in the Crop and Pan screen. Insert the numbers manually to resize the video.

Adjust the crop tool's position and click OK. The export process for landscape and portrait videos is nearly identical and the only thing you need to change is the resolution. Click on the Resolution drop-down menu and select the custom option and then enter the height and weight values you inserted in the cropping tool. Your portrait video is ready to be exported.

3. Square (1:1)

The process of creating a square video is the same as the process of creating a portrait video, but height and weight values need to be identical, so you'll want to set them to 1080X1080, for example. Adjust the position of the crop rectangle and click OK.

The steps for exporting square videos are the same as the steps you need to take to export a portrait video. Make sure to change the resolution of the video to 1080X1080 before hitting the Export button and enjoy sharing your videos on Instagram.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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