Maintaining the original aspect ratio of a clip

A project can contain clips that have varying aspect ratios (proportions of height to width). The aspect ratio of a project is determined by the frame size you specify in the Project Settings or Export Settings dialog boxes. When a clip in the Timeline uses an aspect ratio that is different from the project aspect ratio, Premiere stretches the clip to match the aspect ratio of your project. However, this distorts the picture; resolve this problem by maintaining the clip's original aspect ratio. When you maintain the aspect ratio of a clip with a different aspect ratio from the frame, two sides touch the edge of the frame and empty space appears outside the other two sides, similar to how letterboxed wide-screen videos appear on a television. You can specify the color for the empty areas.

To maintain the original aspect ratio of a clip:

Select a clip in the Timeline and choose Clip > Video Options > Maintain Aspect Ratio.

To set the color for frame areas outside a clip with a maintained aspect ratio:

1 Select a clip in the Timeline.

2 Choose Clip > Video Options > Aspect Fill Color, specify a color (see Using the color picker), and click OK.

Editing Video > Editing clips > Maintaining the original aspect ratio of a clip