How to Post Vertical Photos on Instagram Without Cropping

You framed the perfect vertical shot, but the moment you upload it to Instagram, the app demands a sacrifice, forcing you to crop out key elements. That frustrating experience of fitting a tall photo into a restrictive box is something every creator knows too well. This guide will walk you through exactly how to post your full-sized vertical photos on Instagram without awkward cropping, giving you complete control over how your work appears in the feed.

Understanding Instagram's Aspect Ratios: Why Your Photos Get Cropped

First, it's helpful to know why Instagram crops your images. It’s not a personal attack on your photography, it's all about maintaining a consistent and scannable user experience on the feed. The app has specific approved dimensions, or "aspect ratios," and anything that falls outside those dimensions gets automatically forced to fit.

An aspect ratio is simply the relationship between an image's width and its height. For the Instagram feed, you're primarily working with three:

• Square (1:1): The classic Instagram look. The width and height are equal, like a 1080px by 1080px image.
• Landscape (1.91:1): A wide, horizontal format. Its width is almost twice its height. This option takes up the least amount of vertical space on the feed.
• Portrait (4:5): This is the best option for vertical photos. It’s the tallest aspect ratio Instagram allows for a single image in the feed. A perfect example would be an image that is 1080px wide by 1350px tall.

The problem arises because most smartphones capture photos in a much taller aspect ratio, usually 9:16 or even taller. When you try to upload a 9:16 image directly to the feed, Instagram sees that it's taller than the allowed 4:5 ratio and immediately tries to "help" by prompting you to crop it down. This is where you lose the top and/or bottom of your shot.

The Solution: Adding Borders to Fit the 4:5 Frame

So, how do you trick Instagram into accepting your super-tall photo? You don't. Instead, you give the app exactly what it wants: a 4:5 image.

The secret is to place your original, full-height photo onto a 4:5 canvas. This process adds "padding" - usually white, black, or colored borders - to the left and right sides of your image. Your original photo remains entirely uncropped and perfectly centered. The final file you save is a 4:5 image, and when you upload it, Instagram sees a perfectly sized photo and doesn't try to crop it at all.

Think of it like putting a tall, narrow art print into a standard-sized picture frame. You don't cut the art, you use a matboard to fill the extra space on the sides. We're going to do the exact same thing, but digitally.

How to Add Borders: Step-by-Step Guides for Popular Apps

Adding borders is surprisingly simple and can be done in seconds with a variety of free mobile apps. You don't need expensive desktop software like Photoshop. Here’s how to do it using a few popular, user-friendly tools.

Method 1: The Quickest Fix with a Simple Resizing App

For a no-fuss, straightforward solution, a dedicated image resizing app is the fastest way to get the job done. Many such apps are designed for this specific task, with popular options like "No Crop & Square," "Squaready," and "VMS Image Resizer" available on your device's app store.

1. Download and Open the App: Head to your app store, search for “image resizer no crop” or a similar term, and install a highly-rated, free option.
2. Select Your Photo: Open the app and grant it access to your camera roll. Choose the tall vertical photo you want to post.
3. Choose the Aspect Ratio: Look for a button or menu for "Canvas," "Ratio," or "Fit." From the options, select the 4:5 ratio (it might also be labeled as "Portrait" or show the Instagram logo).
4. Preview and Adjust Borders: The app will automatically place your photo onto a 4:5 canvas and add borders. You should see your entire photo, now with empty space on the sides. Most apps will give you an option to change the border color (white is the most common and cleanest choice) or apply a blur effect.
5. Save the Image: Once you’re happy with the result, save or export the new image to your camera roll. It’s now ready to be uploaded directly to Instagram, no cropping needed.

Method 2: Using the Powerful (and Free) Lightroom Mobile

If you already use Adobe Lightroom Mobile for editing your photos, the process is built right in. It’s incredibly fast and gives you a professional result.

1. Import Your Photo: Open the Lightroom Mobile app and import your tall vertical image into your library.
2. Open the Crop Tool: Tap on the photo to open the editing view, then select the "Crop" tool from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
3. Set the Aspect Ratio: At the bottom of the crop screen, tap on the aspect ratio menu (it might say "Original" or "Custom"). From the list, select 4 x 5. You will immediately see a 4:5 crop box appear over your image.
4. Scale Your Image Down: This is the key step. Your original photo will likely be too big for the new 4:5 frame. Using a two-finger pinch gesture, simply pinch in to shrink your photo. Keep pinching until the entire vertical image fits inside the 4:5 box. Lightroom will automatically fill the empty space on the sides with white borders.
5. Export and Post: Tap the checkmark to confirm the crop, then export the finished image to your camera roll. The saved file is a perfect 1080x1350 (or equivalent 4:5 ratio) image that Instagram will accept without complaint. This ensures you can upload high-quality photos to Instagram every time.

Method 3: Creating a Custom Canvas with Canva

For marketers, content creators, and anyone who lives in Canva, this method feels natural and offers a lot of creative control over your borders and backgrounds.

1. Create a New Design: Open Canva and start a new project. Instead of choosing a template, tap "Custom Size" and enter the optimal Instagram portrait dimensions: 1080px width by 1350px height. This creates a perfect 4:5 canvas.
2. Upload and Place Your Photo: Upload your tall vertical photo to Canva. Drag and drop it onto your blank 1080x1350 canvas.
3. Center and Resize: Resize your photo until it fits nicely within the canvas, with the top and bottom edges touching the top and bottom of the frame. Center it horizontally. You will have blank space on either side - these are your borders.
4. Customize the Background (Optional): Here’s where Canva shines. You can leave the background white, change it to any brand color you like, add a subtle texture, or even place text in the borders. This is a great way to maintain a strong brand aesthetic.
5. Download Your Finished Image: Once your design is complete, download it as a JPG or PNG. You now have a professionally formatted image ready for your feed.

Best Practices for Posting Your Full-Size Vertical Photos

Now that you know how to post your photos without cropping, here are a few extra tips to make them stand out and perform even better.

Embrace the Screen Space

The biggest benefit of using the 4:5 aspect ratio is that it takes up significantly more vertical screen space than a square or landscape photo. When someone is scrolling through their feed, your larger photo is more likely to grab their attention and stop the scroll. It's a simple but effective way to increase your content's visual impact.

Keep Borders Consistent

While you can get creative with border colors, consistency is often best. Most photographers and brands stick with clean white or black borders. White blends seamlessly with Instagram's interface, creating a floating, minimalist effect. Whatever you choose, sticking to it helps build a cohesive and professional-looking grid aesthetic.

Be Mindful of Carousels

You can mix and match photos of different aspect ratios in an Instagram carousel post. However, whatever aspect ratio you choose for the first slide will be applied to all the other slides in that post. If your first image is a 4:5 portrait, Instagram will crop all subsequent images - even landscape ones - to fit that 4:5 frame. Plan your carousels accordingly!

Remember Your Stories

While this guide focuses on in-feed posts, it's worth noting that Instagram Stories operate on a different rulebook. The ideal aspect ratio for Stories is 9:16 - the native vertical format of your smartphone camera. For Stories, you don't need to add any borders or do any resizing. Just film and post directly for a full-screen, immersive experience.

Final Thoughts

Stopping Instagram from cropping your vertical photos isn’t about finding a sneaky hack, but rather about understanding the platform's rules and preparing your content to fit them perfectly. By using a free app to place your photo on a 4:5 canvas before uploading, you maintain complete creative control and make your images stand out in a crowded feed.

Once you’ve perfectly formatted your photos, the next step is building a consistent and visually engaging feed. That’s where our tool, Postbase, comes in. We designed it for modern creators, which means handling a variety of content formats - from properly formatted 4:5 images to full-screen Reels and Stories - is completely seamless. You can visually plan your entire feed, schedule your new vertical photos on our calendar, and trust our reliable scheduler to publish everything exactly when and how you intended it, without the glitches or connection issues common in older tools.