How to crop 16:9 to vertical without cutting off the speaker
· 3 min read
Use reframing that follows the speaker rather than cropping to a fixed centre. A static centre crop removes people whenever they are not dead centre, which is most of the time, so the frame needs to track whoever is talking and switch between two people when the conversation does.
Turning 16:9 footage into a 9:16 short means deciding, every second, what the frame should hold. TailorClip detects faces per segment and makes that decision well — and, more importantly, makes it yours to override.
Pick who the camera follows
In segments where two or more faces share the frame, the Studio's Reframe tab lists them and lets you choose who the crop should track. Apply, and the video re-renders with the new framing — the crop is baked into the encode, so this one triggers a real re-render rather than a fast overlay pass.
Fill, split, or auto — down to the segment
- ✦Fill — crop tight to the speaker.
- ✦Split — stack two speakers in a split-screen frame.
- ✦Auto — let the planner decide per segment.
- ✦Set it globally in the Reframe tab, or click any segment on the timeline and set that one cut's layout individually.
Speaker-switch, automatically
When your footage has a real conversation in it, TailorClip also generates a speaker-switch variety automatically — a cut where the frame moves with the conversation. It shows up in your results as its own labeled edit, like every other variety. Manual point-tracking is coming soon.
Frequently asked
How do I convert a 16:9 video to 9:16 without losing the subject?
Use subject-aware reframing rather than a fixed crop. Going from 16:9 to 9:16 discards roughly three quarters of the width, so which quarter you keep has to follow the person talking instead of being decided once for the whole video.
What happens when two people are talking?
The frame should follow the conversation, cutting to whoever is speaking, or show both at once in a split-screen. Locking onto one person makes the other side of the exchange invisible.
Can I override automatic reframing?
You should be able to, per segment. Automatic tracking is right most of the time and wrong in exactly the moments you care about, such as when the important thing on screen is an object rather than a face.