Vertical vs Horizontal Video: Which Format to Shoot

Shoot vertical (9:16) when people will watch on a phone, in places like Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Shoot horizontal (16:9) when the video will live on your website, on a TV, in a presentation or in a long YouTube video. Most businesses need both, and the smart move is to plan for both before anyone presses record.

We're a marketing agency in London, Ontario, and we see the same mistake over and over: a business pays for a great video, then discovers it looks wrong on the one platform where customers actually see it. This guide helps you avoid that.

TL;DR

• Vertical (9:16) is the default for phone-first social feeds and short-form video.
• Horizontal (16:9) is still the right call for your website, TV screens, interviews, property and job-site walkthroughs, and longer YouTube videos.
• If you can only shoot once and aren't sure where it will end up, shoot horizontal in high resolution. Cropping down to vertical is easy. Stretching vertical out to horizontal is not.
• Better still, plan both formats from the start, with framing that works in each.
• Audience matters: vertical performs best with younger viewers, and the evidence is less clear-cut for older ones.

Table of Contents

• The short answer, by where the video will be watched
• Why vertical wins on phones
• Where horizontal still earns its place
• The platform-by-platform rundown
• How to shoot once and deliver both
• Three local examples of choosing the format
• What we'd tell you before you hire anyone for video
• Our perspective
• Work with a video team in London, Ontario
• A quick checklist before you shoot
• FAQ
• Sources

The short answer, by where the video will be watched

Start with the screen, not the camera. Ask one question: where will most people see this?

That table matches the quick guidance from a video production blog: record vertical when the video will be watched on a phone, and horizontal for TVs and desktop screens.

Why vertical wins on phones

People don't turn their phones. One vendor's internal data, published on a video platform's blog, says phone users hold their devices upright 94% of the time, and only 13% are willing to rotate the phone to watch a horizontal video. Treat that as one company's figure, not a law of nature, but it matches what you do yourself when you scroll.

A horizontal video in a vertical feed shrinks into a thin strip with black bars above and below. Your subject gets small, your text becomes unreadable, and the thumb keeps scrolling.

There's also peer-reviewed evidence for ads specifically. A field study on Facebook with 2,377 users found that vertical video ads generated more likes, clicks, comments and shares than horizontal ones in mobile newsfeeds. That's useful if you're paying to put video in front of people. Marketers have also written up how vertical mobile ads influence likes, clicks, comments and shares in the context of user-generated content.

The catch: your audience's age

The same study found the effect isn't uniform. Younger viewers (Gen Z) found vertical video fluent and immersive, while for older generations (Gen X and Y) the benefit to processing fluency could be negative. If you sell to homeowners in their 50s and 60s, don't assume vertical beats everything. Test it. Run the same message in both formats and look at who actually responds.

Where horizontal still earns its place

Horizontal is not dead. It's just no longer the only option.

• Your website. Visitors on a desktop see a wide window. A vertical video there leaves big empty margins.
• Interviews and testimonials. Two people in a frame, or a person and the thing they're talking about, fit better in a wide shot.
• Environment-driven stories. Director Taylor Kavanaugh's view, quoted by Adobe, is that character-driven stories thrive in vertical, while projects where the environment is a character, like landscapes or group dynamics, play better horizontal. For a local business, think of a finished kitchen renovation, a property exterior, a drone shot of a job site or a restaurant dining room. The space is the story.
• Longer content. Educational videos, product demos and brand overviews usually work better horizontal.
• TV and in-store screens. Landscape remains the norm on television and in cinema.

The platform-by-platform rundown

Instagram and Facebook

Reels and Stories are vertical. Buffer's size guide lists 1080 x 1920 pixels at 9:16 as the format for Instagram Reels. Facebook Reels follow the same logic. If you run paid video on Meta platforms, build your main creative in 9:16 and keep a separate cut for feed placements. We cover the ad side on our Facebook and Instagram ads page.

YouTube

YouTube treats the two formats as different products. As of the current help documentation, vertical or square videos up to three minutes long can be classified as Shorts, depending on upload date and channel type. A horizontal upload stays in the regular video world, where viewers expect longer, more detailed content.

LiveStreaming has one trap. YouTube allows dual streaming in horizontal and vertical, but you can't turn on the vertical stream after the broadcast has started. Set it up before you go live.

Your website

Horizontal for hero videos and service pages. Vertical clips can still work as a small embedded testimonial or a short "how it works" clip, but don't force one into a desktop layout and hope.

Google Ads and video campaigns

Format requirements shift by campaign type, so check them before you brief a shoot. If you're deciding where ad dollars should go first, our comparison of Google Ads and Facebook Ads is a good starting point.

How to shoot once and deliver both

You rarely have the luxury of one size. Here are three workable approaches, from cheapest to most thorough.

1. Shoot horizontal, crop vertical. If you're unsure of your final platform, shoot horizontal 16:9. It is much easier to cut a vertical segment out of a high-resolution wide frame than to stretch a vertical frame out to wide, which tends to cost quality. The downside: you need your subject in the centre third of the frame, and a crop can look tight.
2. Shoot vertical and horizontal separately. Two setups, two framings. It takes longer on the day, but each version looks like it was made for its screen.
3. Use a camera that records both at once. Some cameras record a larger frame so you can reframe in either direction later. It's worth asking your video team what gear they use.

Framing rules that save you in the edit

• Keep faces and key objects near the centre so a vertical crop doesn't cut them off.
• Leave breathing room above and below the subject for text overlays.
• Put captions inside the safe area of the frame, away from the edges where apps place buttons and usernames.
• Add captions regardless. Plenty of people watch with the sound off.
• Hook in the first two seconds. Say what the video is about before anything else.

A phone-shooting tip that avoids headaches

If you shoot vertical on a phone, hold it with the volume buttons facing down. That helps avoid files that get tagged as inverted or landscape when you move them between devices.

Three local examples of choosing the format

These are illustrative scenarios, not client results.

A roofing or renovation company in London. The crew's before-and-after reel goes vertical for Instagram and Facebook. The full project walkthrough, with a drone flyover of the house, goes horizontal for the website and YouTube. Same shoot day, two deliverables.

A restaurant in Kitchener-Waterloo. The chef plating a dish: vertical, close up, 15 seconds. The dining room and patio atmosphere for the website: horizontal, wide.

A professional services firm in Hamilton. Short vertical tips from a partner for social, plus a horizontal "who we are" video for the About page and for presentations.

In each case, the business doesn't pick a side. It picks a format per placement.

What we'd tell you before you hire anyone for video

Ask your video provider these questions. We'd want you to ask us the same ones.

1. "Which formats will I receive?" Good answer: a clear list, such as a horizontal master plus vertical cuts, with the sizes named. Walk-away answer: "We'll just shoot it and see."

2. "How do you frame for both formats?" Good answer: they plan shots around a safe centre area, or shoot dedicated vertical takes. Walk-away answer: they crop a wide shot and call it vertical, with the subject's head cut off.

3. "Who owns the raw footage?" If you don't get the files, you can't make the next cut when a new platform arrives. Footage you can't touch is a hostage, not a convenience.

4. "Where will you tell me to post it?" A good partner connects the video to a platform plan, not just a pretty file.

Our perspective

We work with businesses across multiple industries, from contractors and service companies to realtors and professional firms. Video is where we see the biggest gap between what gets made and what gets used.

Most owners ask "vertical or horizontal?" as if one answer will serve forever. It won't. Customers find you on a phone feed one day and on your website the next, and a video that only fits one of those is a half-finished job.

Our view is simple. Decide where the video has to work, then shoot for those places on the same day. Plan the vertical cut and the horizontal cut together, caption everything, and don't let a nice-looking file stand in for a plan. And don't treat a video as the whole marketing plan: it needs a website that answers the phone call, and ads or search that put it in front of the right people.

We'd rather tell you that up front than sell you footage that sits on a hard drive.

— Launch & Found

Work with a video team in London, Ontario

If you want video planned for every screen your customers use, our media production team covers photo, video and drone work. We're based in London, Ontario, and we also serve businesses in surrounding Ontario service areas, including Kitchener, Waterloo, Hamilton, Cambridge and Toronto.

Pricing is by custom quote, after we've assessed whether we're a fit for your business and goals. Contact us for a quote and tell us where your customers watch.

If you're also thinking about how video fits into a wider plan, these may help:

• Real estate video marketing: a practical guide for agents
• YouTube ads for real estate agents

A quick checklist before you shoot

1. List every place the video will appear: website, Reels, YouTube, email, in-store screen.
2. Pick the primary platform and note its format.
3. Decide whether you need a second format. If yes, plan the framing now, not in the edit.
4. Shoot in the highest resolution your gear allows.
5. Capture clean audio. Poor sound ruins good footage in either format.
6. Plan captions and on-screen text inside the safe area.
7. Ask for the master files and every format version.
8. Test one version against the other with a small budget before you scale.

FAQ

Does Instagram prefer vertical video?

Instagram's Reels and Stories are built for full-screen vertical, and the recommended Reels size is 1080 x 1920 pixels at 9:16. A horizontal video can still be posted, but it will show smaller on a phone. If Reels are your goal, shoot or crop vertical.

Do vertical videos work on YouTube?

Yes. YouTube classifies vertical or square videos up to three minutes as Shorts when they meet the eligibility rules, and those appear in the Shorts feed. For longer, in-depth videos, horizontal is still the usual choice.

Can you change a vertical video into horizontal?

Technically yes, but the results are usually poor. You either crop in hard and lose quality, or fill the sides with blurred bars. It's far easier to cut vertical from a high-resolution horizontal frame, so plan both formats before the shoot.

Is vertical video better for every audience?

Not necessarily. The Facebook field study found vertical ads performed better overall, but the benefit varied by age group. Test both with your own customers.

Sources

• This Way Up: The Effectiveness of Mobile Vertical Video Marketing
• Horizontal vs Vertical Videos: Which Video Format Should I Use? (Covideo)
• Vertical vs Horizontal Video: Which One to Record and When (Ventavid)
• The importance of aspect ratio in modern filmmaking (Adobe)
• Horizontal vs. Vertical Video: When to Use Each (Clideo)
• Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts (YouTube Help)
• Get started with live streaming (YouTube Help)
• Instagram Image Size Guide (Buffer)

Recommended

• Real Estate Video Marketing: A Practical Guide for Agents
• YouTube Ads for Real Estate Agents: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Social Media Marketing Vancouver: A Practical Guide for Owners