How to Crop Video with Adobe Premiere Pro? (with Picture Tutorial)
Eliminating undesired sections from your footage using Adobe Premiere Pro without experiencing pixel distortion or pesky black bars can feel like a labyrinth of hit-and-miss. Rest assured, this article provides detailed and simple steps to crop video in Premiere Pro. Even a beginner can follow to effectively crop video in Premiere.
How to Crop Video in Premiere? [11 Steps]
Step 1: Download and initiate Adobe Premiere Pro on your PC.
● It’s been noticed that older iterations of Premiere Pro may sometimes falter upon adding crop or motion effects to footage, hence always keep your Premiere Pro updated to its latest version.
● A valid Adobe ID and reliable internet connectivity are prerequisites for installing and initializing Premiere.
● Having updated Premiere Pro to its most recent version, also ensure your Graphics card’s driver and personal computer are updated to their latest versions to circumvent potential bugs or lags.
Step 2: Create a new folder to store everything you need for the project.
Organizing your assets diligently will streamline your workflow. Furthermore, a comprehensive video encompasses captivating moving and static images, sound, and a plethora of other media data. Any alteration in the placement of these files will prompt Premiere to request the manual location of the missing data.
Step 3: Develop a fresh folder to hold everything necessary for the project.
Select the yellow folder icon at the lower left or right-click on the media browser space to create bins for storing all media data for the project.
Step 4: Click File > Import to introduce the original video clips into the current bin. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the video directly from your hard drive into the bin.
Step 5: Click Effects on the Media Brower workspace, then enter crop to search for the crop effect.
If you didn’t find Effects here, you can move to the top of the source program monitor. Click Effects, then check your whole workspace, there should be the option of effects and a search bar.
Step 6: Move your cursor to Crop, click, and drag it to drop onto your clip. Now you already add the cropping effect to the working clip.
Step 7: In Adobe Premiere, you have access to percentage sliders for the left, top, right, and bottom adjustments. With these sliders, you can easily grab and move them to modify the specific area you want to remove or adjust. Suppose you grab the percentage slider on the Left, you move it, and now Adobe Premiere would start chopping from the left.
Note: Please be aware that if you choose to click on the “Zoom” option, the remaining footage will be stretched in order to fill the frame. However, it’s important to note that this stretching can visibly distort the footage. Therefore, it is advised not to enable the “Zoom” option unless it is absolutely necessary to have stretched footage.
Step 8: You’ll find the ‘Motion’ option in the scrollable list of ‘Effects’. This is where you can adjust the video’s location by modifying the value next to ‘Position’.
Step 9: If you’re looking to enlarge or shrink your footage, you’ll need to increase or decrease the ‘Scale’ value accordingly.
Note: You have the option to deselect ‘Uniform scale’. Doing so allows you to alter the scaling rate for the height and width of your footage independently, though this may result in distorted frames. To maintain a consistent ratio between the scale of height and width, make sure to keep the ‘Uniform Scale’ box checked.
Step 10: Navigate to the ‘Export Settings’ panel by selecting File, then Export, followed by Media.
Step 11: Within the ‘Export Settings’, you’ll find options for Format, Preset, and Output names. Once you’ve fine-tuned these settings, proceed by clicking on ‘Export’.
Some pointers for preserving your cropped footage:
● Given its compatibility with a broad array of end-play devices and social media platforms, H.264 is an ideal codec choice.
● Opt for ‘Match Source — High bitrate’ to ensure your output clip is of superior quality.
● For better organization, consider customizing the output name to reflect the video content.
● Unless you intend to export video or audio only, remember to mark both ‘Export Video’ and ‘Export Audio’ options.
How to Crop Video in Premiere without Black Bars?
After Part 1, many of you may already realize that the video after cropping comes with black bars. And the simple trick to get rid of those edges is changing the aspect ratio of the sequence.
Step 1: Click Sequence > Sequence settings, there you can change the Editing Mode to Custom.
Step 2: Adjust the frame size according to your requirements.
For instance, let’s say the original video has a frame size of 1280 (horizontal) x 720 (vertical), and I want to transform it into a 1:1 ratio video. To achieve this, I would need to alter the frame size to 720 (horizontal) x 720 (vertical).
Step 3: You can continue to modify your footage using the Crop and Motion tool found in the Effects tab. This tool enables you to scale the image up or down and adjust its position.
Premiere Pro Enables Auto Reframe Videos. How? [Update]
Adobe introduced Auto-Reframe, a feature designed to expedite the creation of vertical videos for social media platforms. How does it accomplish this? By leveraging advancements in AI and Machine Learning technology, the updated version of Premiere is capable of detecting and tracking moving objects. When you reframe a video, Premiere automatically adds numerous motion keyframes to ensure the object remains within the frame. This eliminates the need for manual frame-by-frame adjustments or the creation of multiple keyframes when working with highly dynamic videos.
How to Automatically Reframe the Entire Clip?
If you wish to alter the aspect ratio of all videos within an existing sequence, while ensuring that the moving subject stays within the cropped frame, you can utilize the Auto Reframe Sequence feature.
Step 1: Simply navigate to the main menu, select ‘Sequence’, and then choose ‘Auto Reframe Sequence’. This action will open a dialog box of the same name. Alternatively, you can access this feature by locating your sequence on the left, right-clicking on it, and selecting ‘Auto Reframe Sequence’.
Step 2: The Auto Reframe Panel displays several settings:
● Sequence Name: By default, the sequence name will be the source file’s name, followed by information about the aspect ratio.
● Aspect ratio: Premiere provides ready-to-use options such as Square 1:1, Vertical 4:5, Vertical 9:16, and Horizontal 16:9. You can select one of these, or click on ‘Custom’ to input a different ratio.
● Motion Preset: This can be left as the default setting, or you can choose ‘Faster Motion’ or ‘Slower Motion’, depending on the amount of movement in your video. For example, if you’re working with a sports game footage shot on an action camera, you’d likely choose ‘Faster Motion’ so that Premiere knows to generate numerous motion keyframes to track the fast-paced action. Conversely, if most of your video’s actions are slow-moving, ‘Slower Motion’ would be more suitable. See detailed explanation on the Motion Preset of Auto Reframe >>
● Clip Nesting: If you select this option, Premiere will maintain all the custom changes you’ve made, preserving your prior work from being altered. Thus, if you’ve already made adjustments to playback speed, transitions, or motion keyframes, it’s recommended to enable ‘Clip Nesting’.
Step 3: Once you’ve fine-tuned these settings, click ‘Create’. Premiere will begin analyzing the clip and automatically generate motion keyframes in the Motion Tab. As a result, your footage is cropped to your desired aspect ratio, ensuring no frames with moving objects are lost.
Tips to Apply Auto Reframe Effect to One or Some Clip(s)
Want to apply the Auto Reframe effect to just one clip in the entire sequence? Here’s a quick way to do it.
Step 1: Navigate to Effects, then Video Effects, followed by Transform, and select Auto Reframe. Alternatively, you can simply type ‘Auto Reframe’ into the search bar within the Effects tab for quick access. After locating it, just drag and drop the effect onto the desired clip.
Step 2: Head over to the Motion Preset settings found within the Effects Control tab. Similar to what we adjusted in the Auto Reframe Sequence, you can select the motion preset that best suits your needs from the options ‘Default’, ‘Slower Motion’, and ‘Faster Motion’.
Step 3: Once Premiere has auto-reframed your video, you can return to the Effects Control tab. Here, you have the capability to copy, add, or modify the keyframes that have been automatically generated.
One-click Solution to Crop Any Video without Quality Loss
While professional video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro offers comprehensive editing capabilities, performing a simple task like cropping unwanted areas from your videos can be a daunting process that may take days to complete. It’s a bit like using a hammer to swat a fly! There’s no need to get tangled up in technical complexities or grapple with unpredictable bugs in Adobe Premiere.
An easier alternative is to use VideoProc Converter for your video cropping needs. This software not only saves you time but also spares you from numerous potential headaches. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the entire process, making it as effortless as a stroll in the park. Let’s explore how this efficient cropping tool can help eliminate those pesky black bars and other unnecessary areas from your footage.
VideoProc Converter — Best Video Cropping Software to Crop Any Video without Distortion or Quality Loss
● Chop off the unwanted area such as black bars by directly dragging the dashed box.
● Crop the video to a certain aspect ratio to get the best view experience on Instagram, Facebook…
● The built-in high-quality engine enables you to crop footage without compromising quality.
● Cut, split, trim, merge, stabilize, rotate, denoise, deshake, fisheye correct, and more editing functions.
● Handle videos of any format and resolution, including AVI, HEVC, MOV, MP4, 4K, 8K, etc.
● Process video at 47X faster than real-time play thanks to full GPU acceleration.
So, let’s download VideoProc Converter from its official website and install the program on your device. Then follow the steps below to fast-crop videos without damaging the original quality
Step 1. Add your Videos
Click Video > +Video, and select the video from your computer, you can also directly drag and drop the needed clips to this panel.
Step 2. Enable Crop
Click Crop to open up the Video Crop window.
Step 3. Crop your footage
Check Enable Crop, and drag the cropping borders displays on the edges of the video images. The section inside the borders will be kept.
Tips:
● You can also click the value in the drop-down box of Preset to set a fixed aspect ratio.
● Setting a specific Position to get the desired video size is also available.
Final Thoughts
To summarize, you can use Premiere Pro for video cropping by applying the Crop effect. Once that’s done, you can move to the Motion setting to adjust the image’s position within the cropping frame by altering the Scale and Position values. Occasionally, you may add black bars, in which case you would need to modify the aspect ratio information in the sequence.
Editing basics like cropping videos shouldn’t be complicated, but they can become so in Premiere Pro. If you’re frustrated by trial and error processes, consider using VideoProc Converter. This software offers flexible ways to crop footage without sacrificing quality. Its user-friendly interface enables you to not only crop videos but also perform other editing tasks like cutting, trimming, resizing, rotating, and correcting fisheye distortion in just a few clicks. Additionally, VideoProc Converter supports NVIDIA, Intel QSV, and AMD hardware acceleration technology, so it can handle 4K or even 8K videos within seconds.