Start with what must stay visible
A close-up of one speaker may tolerate a tight crop. A two-person interview may not: the other speaker can disappear outside a centered portrait window. In a lesson, the useful information might be an equation, legend or cursor at the edge rather than the presenter’s face.
Full-frame output scales the original image to fit in front of a blurred background. The entire foreground remains visible, but people and text become smaller on the same phone screen. Keeping all the pixels in view does not guarantee that small labels are readable.
- One speaker: inspect the face and gestures before choosing smart framing.
- Two speakers: check both sides when the conversation changes speaker.
- Slides or screen recordings: check titles, key numbers and the cursor area.
- Tiny text: consider keeping 16:9 rather than forcing a portrait layout.
How much does a 16:9 to 9:16 crop remove?
For a 1920 × 1080 landscape source, a 9:16 window at the original height is about 607.5 pixels wide. A centered crop keeps about 31.6% of the source image area, leaving about 68.4% outside the window across the two sides.
With full-frame output, the entire source image remains visible, but the foreground occupies about 31.6% of the portrait canvas area. Background fills the space above and below. The calculator describes geometry; source quality, scaling and encoding also affect the final image.
One portrait canvas, two tradeoffs
- Crop
- A larger subject, with information near the edges potentially removed.
- Full frame
- The complete image, with smaller people and text inside the portrait canvas.
Smart framing can change the crop position. It cannot make incompatible aspect ratios fill the canvas with no crop and no background space at the same time.
Make a portrait clip with the full image in AIClipPilot
Choose your original recording
Use a local MP4, MOV or WEBM file up to 500 MB that you own or have permission to edit. External video links are not imported; start with a file saved on your device.
Choose the target layout
Start a new project and choose 9:16 for the output format. Select Full frame in the framing options, decide whether to include captions, review your available allowance and submit the recording for processing.
Review the candidate clips
In the results workspace, watch the beginning, middle and end of each candidate. Pay attention when a speaker changes sides, a demo window moves or a slide advances.
Adjust and download
If essential content is too small, consider landscape output or paid smart framing. Edits produce a new preview, so review it before downloading. Save the MP4 files you need and keep your own original recording.
Four checks before exporting a portrait clip
Projects use temporary storage and files are normally cleaned up about one hour after the last processing run ends. Download the clips you need promptly. The workspace is not a replacement for your own source-file backup.
- Check text at roughly phone-screen size, not only in a large desktop preview.
- Keep captions readable without covering essential labels or numbers in the source.
- Watch the whole clip: people may move after the first frame.
- Listen for a complete idea. Correct framing does not guarantee a complete opening or ending.
When should you keep the landscape format?
This workflow suits short clips made from existing podcasts, interviews, lessons and demonstrations. It does not generate missing scenery or automatically redesign a slide for a portrait screen.
If you need to publish the entire recording unchanged, or every slide contains small text, landscape may be more useful. Preserve the information first, then choose a format that your viewers can actually read.