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Do you need to crop your videos for your edits or to fit them once they are uploaded? There are several ways you can get your video cropped online. But among the many, what should you pick?
Cropping Vs. Zooming Vs. Trimming
People often interchange cropping, zooming, and trimming. However, they are different from each other.
- Cropping is the process of changing the size of a video by adjusting the edges.
- Zooming is adjusting the scale of clips and images by zooming in or out to display the essential details.
- Trimming is removing a part of the beginning or end of a video clip to better fit a storyboard or achieve an appropriate video size.
Why Should You Crop Videos?
Cropping is a regular occurrence to video editors. However, if you don’t normally work with creating video content, then you might wonder why cropping is needed. Here are some of the reasons why video cropping exists:
- To Fit The Size Format Of A Platform
When your videos don’t have the right size format for a platform you want to use it with, you’ll see blocks on the sides that are not pleasing to you and your audience. Or, the platform may automatically cut sides of the video screen and miss important elements and mess with perspectives. By cropping videos, you’ll fit your videos into the right size formats.
Here are some aspect ratios on popular social media sites:
- YouTube Shorts: 9:16
- Pinterest: 1:1; 2:3, 4:5; 9:16
- LinkedIn: 1:2.4 to 2.4:1
- Instagram Stories: 9:16
- Instagram Feed: 1.91:1 to 4:5
- Facebook: Generally 1.91:1 to 1:1
- To Focus On The Subject
If you want to focus the video on one element, you can crop the frame by highlighting your subject. This way, you can effectively remove distractions that can snatch the viewers’ attention. It’s also a technique that most editors use when the video clips are limited and need focused shots on their main object.
- To Remove Unwanted Objects
Sometimes, there are mistakes during the filming process of the video. There are unwanted objects captured that can cause issues or confusion for the viewers or simply don’t go with the story. Cropping the video is one of the easiest ways to remove these while avoiding long hours of work for re-filming.
- To Highlight Important Parts
In films, important scenes or objects need to be featured in the video to give the viewers a clue or hint of the next scenes. Highlighting important parts is critical to keep the audience’s interest and make the story flow better.
How To Crop Videos Online
Most online video cropping sites have a simple interface that is easy to use and navigate through. Here are the basic steps you can follow when cropping your videos online:
- Choose the video you want to crop. Make sure you have the right videos saved in a separate folder or space ready for cropping to avoid wasting time. It’s also a good practice to rename these videos so you can easily identify them. For example: “Crop 1_Video Name.”
- Upload the video on the website. Some websites don’t accept all file formats, so if your file doesn’t belong to the correct format, you can also use an online video file converter.
- Click on the cropping icon. You can hover your mouse around the tools available, look for the word “crop” or similar.
- Choose your cropping size. Especially if you’re planning to use it on a specific social media site with required aspect ratios. You can also customize your cropping size. However, it’s best to go back to the platform you’re going to upload the video to have a guide with the size.
- You can adjust the video by toggling what subjects you want to highlight with the cropped video. You can move the video and fit them into the frame. You can also zoom in on the clips if you want to focus on an object.
- Click on the cropping icon again once you’re done fixing the size and position of your video. Double-check the video to check for any mistakes because redoing the edits will eat up your time.
Advantages Of Cropping Video Online
Like any other tools and technique in video editing, cropping offers benefits that you can use in your projects. Remember to use it correctly to get the best output. Here are some of the advantages of video cropping online:
- Avoid Lags
When you edit many video clips, you’ll encounter lagging problems due to the large file size, and every effect or edit you add can cause more lag time. So, cropping the video online will save you lots of time in edits due to minutes and hours of your desktop loading while you’re cropping the video in your software.
- Easy To Use
Many online video cropping sites are easy to use. You just have to upload your video and crop them the way you want to with its simple and easy interface.
- Convenient
Online video cropping sites are convenient, especially if you need to crop videos right away. You don’t have to worry about purchasing video editing software. You’ll head to the sites and crop the video immediately.
Conclusion
Having an alternative way to edit videos is a great help when editing videos. It doesn’t only save you time, but also saves you money.
