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I have a video that has 4 up-down-left-right black borders of different sizes.

I want to get rid of these black borders so the exported file has the exact size of the cropped area.

To do this, I used the "crop" effect (I would have preferred a tool that allows me to set the crop dimensions in pixels, but I guess that's not supported). But then I had a problem when exporting the video:

I'd like to be able to keep a hand on the parameters of the exported video, and ensure that the video will have the exact resolution of the cropped area. But I could not accomplish this.

Can someone tell me how to do this?

EDIT:
My source video is 1002 x 720 (so it's in landscape mode) It contains a 316 x 562 portion I want to extract (so, portrait mode)
The minimum I want is to be able to obtain a 316 x 562 video containing just the cropped section. The best I could obtain is a 632 x 1124 (or any other proportional scale) video on output.

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  • I get the feeling there is a language barrier here, but it is really hard to make out what you are asking. It sounds like you are trying to figure out how to get rid of the black borders around a video and then export such that there is no scaling applied to the portion that wasn't the borders. Is that correct?
    – AJ Henderson ♦
    Mar 27, 2014 at 3:17
  • @AJHenderson:Yes, this is exactly what I meant.
    – Oliver
    Mar 27, 2014 at 19:17

7 Answers 7

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I would probably approach it by first measuring the size of the area that you want to crop to. This can be done by exporting a frame of the image and cropping in another program (like Photoshop).

I would then create a sequence based on the other settings of the video, but alter the resolution of the sequence to be that of the portion of the video you want.

After that, you should be able to bring in the video to the sequence. By default, it will be come in at 100% of it's size. It may not be perfectly centered in your frame though, so use the Motion settings under the effects control to position the actual video portion in the center of the frame.

You should then simply be able to export and the outside potions will be cropped off without any scaling.

This may seem a bit complicated, but it is the simplest way to do it since the default behavior is to fit the sequence to the size of the original clip and cropping doesn't do anything to change the sequence size. That's why we have to start with the correct sequence size and when we have that, no crop effect is needed as only the content we want fits in the sequence.

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  • Thank you, but it seems a little bit complicated. Before trying that, are you sure there is not a simplest way of doing ? Why a crop tool if this do not crop ?
    – Oliver
    Mar 27, 2014 at 21:27
  • Yes, I understand, but what I don't understand is what the crop tool is made for if it does not crop. In Photoshop, when you crop, it crops, no matter on what size you want to set the image or work area.
    – Oliver
    Mar 28, 2014 at 6:42
  • In Photoshop you aren't working on multiple items in one sequence. The dimensions of a clip are independent from the dimensions of the sequence. Crop functions as you'd expect but only alters the clip.
    – AJ Henderson ♦
    Mar 28, 2014 at 12:44
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I found that using Adobe Media Encoder is much easier when just cropping. Add the video to the queue and open the export settings. On the source tab you can crop the video and there you can also enter how many pixels to remove at each side. Remember to set the correct output size in the video tab on the right side.

Here is a screenshot showing how i did it: Here is a screenshot showing how i did it

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  • 2
    That's what I was looking for! File > Export > Media > Source > Crop the output video > Crop Proportions > 16:9
    – Ryan
    Jun 26, 2018 at 15:57
  • This should be the best solution but for some reason 'match source' isn't actually respecting the crop. So I have to manually enter in the size. I hate AME so much. Such a clumsy disaster of a program.
    – Simon_Weaver
    Jul 25, 2018 at 22:56
  • Remember to set the correct output size in the video tab on the right side. ‼️😅
    – Steve Meisner
    Jan 4, 2022 at 20:33
  • If you come back there, I can't get it to work. It still export the video in the original resolution, I just have black borders everywhere instead of just left and right, and the actual video is smaller. I am trying to crop a 4K video into a 4:5 format. Nothing that should be too complex, I just want it to remove pixels, not rescale the output.
    – Milan
    Jan 4 at 20:45
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I think I've found the easiest way!

  1. Just crop the area you want.
  2. Go to the Export window without worrying about the black margins showing.
  3. Set the final resolution and export settings as you would want.
  4. (THIS IS THE IMPORTANT ONE) On the top left of the Export Window, there are two tabs; SOURCE and OUTPUT. Go to the Source Tab.
  5. On the left-most side, find the crop icon and activate it.
  6. Now, MANUALLY crop the black margins out AGAIN.
  7. Proceed to export.

I've been worrying about it all day and I am so happy now! Thank you guys for the other answers that put me in the right direction.

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    This is the best solution! Also, I was searching how to crop in pixels instead of percent, and cropping on export is in pixels, nice.
    – kelin
    Mar 1, 2017 at 20:54
  • 1
    Thank you, this worked...mostly. The only thing is while it crops the picture and centers it, it keeps the original canvas size. So if I have a really tall video and crop it to a square, the output is still a tall canvas with a square in the center.
    – Elliptica
    May 6, 2020 at 13:00
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Oliver, have you tried changed your sequence settings to the new dimensions?

You can also restrict/define dimensions in the export settings under 'Basic Video Settings'.

Hope this helps!

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  • It is worth noting that the second option there would result in scaling up and then scaling back down at output. You would need to match the sequence settings to the resolution of the actual image portion in order to avoid scaling.
    – AJ Henderson ♦
    Mar 27, 2014 at 15:27
1

I had the same basic problem, but mine was a little more complex. I shot all the video footage on the same camera, and didn't need to crop any of the clips except the welcome speech clip. I didn't realize it at the time, but in the frame was a kid picking his nose and eating his discoveries, not once but four times! So I had to crop the whole frame, and then resize it so it would be the same size as the rest of the clips. Here's what I did:

I opened up the clip I needed to crop in Premiere Pro, just that clip. I cropped it by holding down the shift key to keep the proper proportions, went to File - Export, and then Source in the upper left. I cropped the black edges out again, and processed the video. Once that was done, I imported the clip into the video I was working on, went back to the same time stamp in that clip as it was before, and inserted the clip right into where the original clip was with the nose picking going on.

There may be easier and faster ways to do this, but this worked for me, and I hope it will work for you, too.

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Summarizing what I learned from this page and the steps I ended up taking to crop & make a new clip at that exact size:

Crop Video & Export at that exact new size (e.g. for getting rid of any unwanted black bars):

Import video into Project Panel.

Drag onto Timeline Window to create a Sequence.

Choose In/Out points. (“i” and “o” keys)

File > Export > Media

Export Settings: Go to top left, click “Source” (so it’s blue), the Crop sign shows, and you can adjust your desired crop section right there, dragging the crop lines or via precise pixel info. Video & adjustments should be visible.

At the bottom of that window set Source Range to “Sequence In/Out,” so Premiere is only working on the segment you actually want.

On the right, within the same Export Settings window, you may have to enter the new video dimensions, after deducting the pixels that you ended up cropping out in the left side of the window. Then on the right side, under “Video,” find “Basic Video Settings,” Width and Height, make sure to UN-check those check marks that would force you to keep the old/original dimensions and image ratio. Then enter the new pixel info.

Scroll that same window up to get to the (currently still undisplayed) Bitrate Settings and choose the appropriate Bitrate.

(etc.)

Double-check in the right side of the window under “Summary” - “Output” that all the values are correct.

Then Export.

This will give you the cropped video as intended, in the new specified format size.

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0

After Effects has an concept of 'region of interest', and you can crop a video clip visually to the size you want. You can then crop the composition to the same size and export that. This was a much better solution for me trying to crop a video where the subject moved within the frame.

Premiere is first and foremore a video editing program, so if you're looking to arbitratily crop a video/sequence you're going to get a headache trying to do it.

Another important thing to be aware of it that if your final destination is web you'll need to make sure that you don't end up with single black pixel border around the image. For instance I just used the above technique and on iOS I get a single pixel black border at the bottom and on Windows I get a single pixel black border on the right hand size. It is some kind of rounding problem with the video encoder or decoder and not due to anything in the source video. I'm still struggling with this particular issue - and I've heard that mp4 prefers multiples of 16 for dimensions but that doesn't seem to be helping. Something to be aware of though if you have a video that needs to 'float' on the page seamlessly.

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