How to Post Horizontal and Vertical Photos on Instagram

Getting your perfectly shot horizontal photo auto-cropped into an awkward square on Instagram is one of social media’s most common frustrations. The good news is that you have complete control over how your vertical and horizontal images appear on the platform, whether as a single post or mixed together in a carousel. This guide will walk you through exactly how to post your photos in their intended format, protecting your composition and ensuring your feed looks just the way you imagined.

Understanding Instagram's Aspect Ratios

Before we can fix the cropping problem, we need to understand why it happens in the first place. It all boils down to "aspect ratio," which is simply the relationship between an image's width and its height. Instagram has specific, rigid rules for the aspect ratios it officially supports on different parts of its platform. If your photo doesn't fit, Instagram forces it to by cropping.

Here are the core dimensions you need to know:

• Square Posts: The classic 1:1 aspect ratio. (e.g., 1080 x 1080 pixels)
• Vertical Posts (Portrait): Maximum of a 4:5 aspect ratio. This is the tallest your photo can be in the feed. (e.g., 1080 x 1350 pixels)
• Horizontal Posts (Landscape): Maximum of a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. This is the widest your photo can be in the feed. (e.g., 1080 x 566 pixels)
• Instagram Stories &, Reels: A full-screen 9:16 aspect ratio. (e.g., 1080 x 1920 pixels)

The "why" is simple: consistency. Instagram’s feed is a uniform column, and these rules keep the user experience clean and predictable. The real issue arises when you try to post photos that don't match these dimensions, especially when you want to mix and match them.

How to Post a Single Horizontal or Vertical Photo

Let's start with the easy part: posting a single photo that isn't a perfect square. When you upload a landscape shot or a vertical portrait, Instagram automatically defaults to a 1:1 square crop, often cropping out the best parts of your scenery or cutting off people. Luckily, there's a one-tap fix built right into the app.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Open Instagram and tap the + icon to create a new post.
2. Select the single vertical or horizontal photo you want to upload from your gallery.
3. By default, you'll see it cropped into a square in the preview window. Look in the bottom-left corner of the preview for a small icon with two corner arrows pointing outward (the Frame icon). Tap it.
4. Your photo will immediately zoom out to fit its full, original dimensions - either vertical (up to 4:5) or horizontal (up to 1.91:1).
5. You can tap the icon again to toggle back to the square crop.
6. Once you're happy with the framing, tap "Next," apply your edits or filters, write your caption, and post as usual.

This simple trick works perfectly for single-image posts. But what happens when you want to create a carousel with both a vertical portrait and a horizontal landscape side-by-side? That’s where things get complicated.

The Carousel Challenge: How to Mix Horizontal &, Vertical Photos in One Post

Here’s the problem you've likely faced: when you select multiple photos for a carousel, Instagram forces every single photo to conform to the aspect ratio of the very first photo you select.

If your first photo is a 1:1 square, all your landscape photos get zoomed and cropped. If your first photo is a 4:5 vertical portrait, Instagram will awkwardly try to make your wide landscape photo tall, cutting off the sides. This limitation makes posting a mixed gallery seem impossible without major compromises.

The solution isn’t in the Instagram app itself - it requires some preparation beforehand. We need to make all our photos the same aspect ratio before uploading. We do this by adding "padding" (or borders) to our images to fit them into a uniform frame.

The "Padding" Method: Your Best Friend for Carousels

The goal is to place both your horizontal and vertical images onto a single, consistent canvas size. The best canvas to use is a 4:5 vertical frame (1080 x 1350 pixels), because it takes up the most screen space in the Instagram feed, grabbing more attention.

By putting your horizontal photos on a 4:5 canvas, you'll simply have blank space (usually white or black) above and below the image. When a user swipes through your carousel, the frame stays the same while the content inside it changes. It’s a clean, professional look that gives you full creative control.

You can use any number of free tools for this, like Canva, Adobe Express, or mobile apps such as Picsart or Snapseed. Here’s a detailed walkthrough using Canva, which is incredibly user-friendly.

Step-by-Step Guide Using Canva:

1. Create the Right Canvas. Open Canva and select "Create a design." Choose "Custom size" and enter the dimensions: 1080 px for width and 1350 px for height. This creates our perfect 4:5 Instagram post canvas.
2. Upload Your Photos. In the left-hand editor panel, go to "Uploads" and upload all the horizontal and vertical photos you want to use in your carousel.
3. Add Your First Horizontal Photo. Drag your horizontal image from the "Uploads" panel onto your blank 4:5 canvas. Resize it so its sides touch the edges of the canvas. You'll now have your full landscape image centered with white padding on the top and bottom. Pro tip: You can change the background color of the canvas to match your brand or create a specific aesthetic.
4. Finalize and Duplicate. Once your first photo is placed perfectly, click the "Add Page" button below your current canvas. This will create a second, blank 1080 x 1350 canvas.
5. Add Your Vertical Photo. Drag your vertical photo onto this new page. Resize it to fill the entire frame. If your vertical shot isn't a perfect 4:5, you can crop it slightly or leave small borders on the sides for consistency. Repeat this for every photo in your carousel.
6. Download Your New Images. Once all your photos are placed onto their own 4:5 pages, click "Share" in the top-right corner, then "Download." Select "PNG" or "JPG" as the file type and ensure you've selected "All pages." Canva will download a ZIP file containing each of your newly formatted images.

Uploading Your Padded Carousel to Instagram

Now for the satisfying part. You have a folder of images all in the exact same 4:5 vertical format, even if the pictures inside are horizontal.

1. Open Instagram and create a new post, tapping the "Select multiple" icon.
2. Choose your edited photos in the order you want them to appear.
3. This time, you'll notice in the preview that nothing is automatically cropped. Because every file is already a perfect 4:5, Instagram has no reason to crop them. You won't even need to use the frame expand icon.
4. Proceed to edit, add your caption, and post. Your carousel will now feature both landscape and portrait images seamlessly, without any awkward cuts.

Quick Tips for Picture-Perfect Posts

• Always Think Vertically: Even when prepping a horizontal image for a carousel, using a 4:5 vertical canvas is the best strategy. Vertical content feels more immersive and performs better because it dominates the screen on mobile devices.
• Plan Your Grid: Remember that only the first image of a carousel appears on your profile grid. Consider how a square crop or a vertical 4:5 post will look with surrounding posts. Sometimes, using padded horizontal photos can create an interesting, letterboxed pattern on your feed.
• Apply to Stories and Reels Too: The same padding logic applies to Stories and Reels. If you have a horizontal video clip you want to post as a Reel, place it on a 9:16 canvas (1080 x 1920 pixels) in a video editor beforehand. This prevents Instagram from doing an ugly zoom-and-crop and gives space for captions above or below.

Final Thoughts

Mastering a few aspect ratio rules and adopting a quick pre-editing workflow is all it takes to gain complete control over your Instagram posts. By adding padding before you upload, you can confidently mix and match any combination of photo orientations in a carousel without sacrificing your images to Instagram's aggressive auto-crop.

We understand that building a great content calendar with thoughtful carousels, Reels, and Stories takes time. That’s why we created our visual planner in Postbase to make the process simpler. You can upload all your newly edited posts - including mixed-orientation carousels - and see exactly how your grid will look before scheduling anything, helping you plan a polished and professional feed without last-minute stress.