How to Post a Landscape Video on Instagram

You’ve just shot an amazing landscape video, but now you need to post it on Instagram - a platform that champions vertical content. How do you share your horizontal masterpiece without awkwardly cropping out half the action or shrinking it into a tiny rectangle? This guide will show you exactly how to post a landscape video on Instagram effectively, covering everything from the quick pinch-and-zoom fix to creating a professionally formatted video that looks incredible in the feed.

Why Instagram Is Built for Vertical Video

Before jumping into the "how," it helps to understand the "why." Instagram is designed to be a mobile-first experience. People hold their phones vertically, so the app prioritizes content that fills the entire screen, giving users a more immersive and engaging experience. This design choice directly influences the ideal video formats for different parts of the platform.

Reels and Stories: The 9:16 Standard

Reels and Stories are the kings of full-screen content on Instagram. Both are designed for a 9:16 aspect ratio, which is the standard vertical orientation of a smartphone. When you upload a video that isn’t 9:16, Instagram will automatically try to fit it into that frame by cropping it, which is where things often go wrong for landscape videographers.

Feed Posts: A Little More Flexibility

The main Instagram feed used to be all about the 1:1 square. Today, it’s much more flexible. You can post videos in a few different aspect ratios:

• Square (1:1): The classic Instagram look.
• Portrait (4:5): A taller format that takes up more screen space than a square post, often leading to better engagement.
• Landscape (16:9): Yes, you can technically post a full 16:9 landscape video directly to your feed. However, it will appear with black bars above and below it and takes up far less screen real estate than a square or portrait video. When users are scrolling quickly, smaller videos are easier to miss.

Even with this flexibility, your landscape video is still at a disadvantage. To make it stand out, especially if you want to use it as a Reel, you need to format it properly.

The Quick Fix: Posting Directly in Instagram

If you're in a hurry and just need to get the video up, Instagram's built-in editor offers a simple, albeit limited, solution. This method involves uploading your landscape video and letting the app handle the resizing.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Instagram and tap the "+" icon to create a new Reel or post.
2. Select your landscape video from your camera roll.
3. Instagram will immediately display your horizontal video in a vertical (9:16) frame. It will automatically center the shot, cropping the sides.
4. Using two fingers, you can pinch and zoom to reposition the part of the video you want to keep in the frame. You can slide it left or right to follow a subject, but you can never show the entire width of your original shot at once.
5. Once you’ve framed it as best as you can, tap "Next" to continue adding audio, captions, and effects.

The Downside: You Lose Most of Your Shot

While this method is fast, the tradeoff is significant. You’re forced to crop out large portions of your beautiful landscape footage. If you filmed a stunning panoramic sunset, this method might cut out the most dramatic parts on the left and right sides. If your video contains important action on the edges of the frame, viewers will miss it entirely. It’s a compromise that often sacrifices the original intent and quality of your work.

The Best Method: Pre-Format Your Video for a Professional Look

To preserve your 16:9 landscape video in its entirety and make it look fantastic on Instagram, you need to format it before you upload. The secret is to place your horizontal video clip inside a vertical 9:16 video project. This technique, sometimes called pillarboxing, creates vertical bars on the top and bottom, giving you a canvas that pleases Instagram's algorithm while keeping your original shot intact.

This approach gives you complete creative control, prevents unwanted cropping, and gives your content a much more polished feel.

Step 1: Choose Your Background Style (The Bars)

Those empty spaces above and below your video? They don't have to be boring. You have several options to make them visually appealing:

• Classic Black or White Bars: This is the simplest and cleanest option. Black bars give a cinematic feel, while white bars offer a bright, modern look that blends well with a minimalist aesthetic.
• Blurred Background: A popular and visually dynamic choice. You use a blurred, stretched-out version of your own video as the background. This fills the frame with color and movement that complements the main footage without being distracting.
• Branded Color or Graphic Background: If you have brand colors, use one to fill the background. This strengthens your brand identity and makes your content instantly recognizable. You can also use a subtle patterned graphic or texture.

Step 2: Edit Using a Free Mobile App Like CapCut

You don't need expensive desktop software to do this. Free mobile apps like CapCut, InShot, or VN Video Editor make this incredibly easy. Here’s a basic walkthrough using CapCut, one of today's most popular editors:

1. Start a New Project: Open CapCut and tap "New project." Select your landscape video from your gallery.
2. Set the Aspect Ratio: Once your video is on the timeline, look at the bottom menu and find the "Ratio" or "Format" icon. Tap it and select "9:16." Your video will now appear in the middle of a vertical frame with black bars.
3. Customize the Background: Right below the aspect ratio settings, you should see options for "Canvas," "Color," and "Blur". Use this menu to apply your desired background.
   • To get a solid color, select one from the color palette.
   • To add the popular blurred effect, CapCut often applies it by default, you can select "Blur" to pick a style.
4. Resize Your Video (Optional): Your landscape video might not perfectly fill the width of the 9:16 frame. Use two fingers to pinch and zoom the clip until its edges meet the sides of the vertical canvas.
5. Export: Once you’re happy with the look, tap the export button (usually an arrow icon in the top-right corner). Choose your resolution (1080p is perfect for Instagram) and frame rate, then save the video to your phone.

Now you have a brand-new 9:16 video file, perfectly optimized for Instagram Reels, ready to upload.

Step 3: Maximize the Space with Burned-In Text

One of the best aspects of the border method is the extra real estate it creates. Since so many people watch videos without sound, adding subtitles or a catchy title directly onto the video is a great way to grab their attention. Use the top or bottom bar to add a dynamic headline or key takeaways. Most video editing apps, including CapCut, have robust text tools that let you animate text and add custom fonts, making your content even more engaging.

Creative Alternatives for Your Landscape Content

Borders aren't the only way to adapt horizontal video. If you're willing to put in a little more editing effort, you can try these creative approaches.

The Pan-and-Scan Method

Instead of trying to show the entire wide shot at once, you can reframe it by creating movement within the original shot. In an editing app, set your project to 9:16 and place your 16:9 video inside. Now, use keyframes to digitally "pan" from left to right, following the most important action. For example, if you have a video of someone walking from one side of a beach to the other, you can animate the crop to follow them. This creates a video that feels natively vertical and much more dynamic.

The "Turn Your Phone" Strategy for Feed Posts

This is a clever trick for standard feed posts (not Reels). If you’re adamant that your video must be viewed in full-screen landscape mode, you can post a carousel.

• Slide 1: Create a simple vertical graphic (9:16 or 4:5 ratio) with an arrow and text that says something like, "Turn your phone to watch!"
• Slide 2: Add your original 16:9 landscape video.

When users see the first slide, they understand the instruction. As they swipe, they can turn their phones sideways to watch your video as intended. This method interrupts the user's flow, it’s a smart workaround for content that absolutely must be seen in its original format.

Final Thoughts

Posting a landscape video on Instagram doesn't have to be a compromise. Forget forcing a horizontal clip into a vertical box and losing half the shot. By taking a few extra minutes to reformat your video - whether by adding stylish borders, panning across the action, or using a creative carousel - you preserve the quality of your work and present it in a professional, engaging way that the platform will reward.

Creating beautiful, platform-specific content like this solves one part of the puzzle, the other is consistently planning and scheduling it all. At Postbase, we designed our platform specifically for today's video-first marketing reality. You can upload your perfectly formatted Reels, TikToks, and Shorts, schedule them far in advance across all your social profiles from one visual calendar, and trust that they’ll publish reliably when they're supposed to. We built it to be the simple, modern way to manage your content without the headache.