---
title: "Stabilize Video Without Cropping | stabilize.video"
description: "Stabilize video without cropping: Full frame keeps the whole picture and fills the moving edges, or Smart zoom crops only where needed. Free, no upload."
url: https://stabilize.video/stabilize-video-without-cropping
---

1. [Home](https://stabilize.video/)
2. [Fix shaky video](https://stabilize.video/fix-shaky-video)
3. Without cropping

Free · runs in your browser

# Stabilize video without cropping the picture

Keep every part of the frame at its original scale while the shake is removed, and choose how the moving edges are filled. Free, in your browser, with nothing uploaded.

Every stabiliser crops a little by default, because cancelling the shake moves each frame and pulls its edges into view. To keep the whole picture, set **Framing** to **Full frame**: nothing is zoomed, the steadied picture moves inside the frame, and the small gaps it leaves at the edges are filled with a soft **Blurred** border or one of three other fills. This page opens with the **Full frame** preset, which does exactly that.

If a filled edge would show too much, **Smart zoom** is the middle way: it zooms in only on the stretches that need it and keeps the full frame elsewhere. Both are compared below, alongside the way Premiere Pro, CapCut and other apps deal with the same edges. For the wider question of what stabilising can fix, see [fixing a shaky video](https://stabilize.video/fix-shaky-video).

## How to stabilize a video without cropping

1. ### Open the clip
Drop it on the box marked **Drop a clip to steady without cropping**, press Ctrl+O (⌘+O on a Mac), or on a phone tap **Choose a clip to steady**. It opens with the **Full frame** preset, so **Framing** is already set to **Full frame**.
2. ### Choose the edge fill
Under **Edges**, pick **Blurred** (the default), **Mirrored**, **Repeat edge** or **Black**. Play a shaky stretch to see how each one looks on your clip.
3. ### Set how far the picture may move
In **Full frame**, the zoom slider becomes **Max movement**. Raise it for a steadier result with more filled edge, or lower it to show less fill and keep a little of the shake.
4. ### Compare, or try Smart zoom
Set **View** to **Split** and drag the divider. If the edges catch your eye, set **Framing** to **Smart zoom**, which crops only where the shake needs it.
5. ### Export video
Press **Export video** (Ctrl+Enter or ⌘+Enter), check the settings and press **Export video** again. The export keeps the original frame size; **Download** it or **Share** it from your phone.

## Why stabilising usually crops

Imagine the shake moved the camera 5% of the frame to the left. To cancel it, that frame is moved 5% to the right, which leaves a strip 5% wide with no picture on the left-hand side. Hiding strips like that on every side takes a zoom of roughly 111%, and any rotation swings the corners in further still.

Zooming also costs a little sharpness. At 120%, every five pixels of the result are made from about four pixels of the original, so fine detail softens slightly. That is why the stronger presets, which allow more zoom, are kept for footage that really needs them, and why keeping the full frame is worth it for detailed, wide shots.

## Three ways to handle the edges

**Framing** has three settings. With the first two, the line under **Zoom limit** tells you how far the picture zooms in; **Full frame** has no zoom to report.

__The three Framing options__
| Framing         | What happens                                                                             | Best for                                               |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Crop to fit** | One steady zoom for the whole clip, just enough to hide the edges, up to **Zoom limit**. | Most clips; the framing never changes                  |
| **Smart zoom**  | Zooms in only where the shake needs it, easing in and out.                               | Clips with one rough stretch in an otherwise calm shot |
| **Full frame**  | No zoom: the picture moves and the gaps are filled.                                      | Wide, detailed shots, or footage you’ll reframe later  |

## Choosing an edge fill

The fill is only visible where the picture has moved away from the frame’s edge, usually a thin band during the worst of the shake. It is made from the current frame’s own edge, so it is never real picture, but the right choice makes it easy to miss.

* **Blurred**: a heavily softened copy of the frame spreads into the gap. The least noticeable on most footage, which is why it is the default.
* **Mirrored**: the picture is reflected at its edge. Works on grass, water, foliage and sky, but shows on straight lines and faces.
* **Repeat edge**: the outermost row of pixels is stretched outwards, leaving streaks. Fine for thin gaps on plain backgrounds.
* **Black**: plain black bars. Honest and tidy if you plan to crop or reframe in an editor later.

### Showing less fill

* Lower **Smoothness**: a gentler path moves the picture less, so less edge shows.
* Lower **Max movement**: the picture may travel less, so less fill shows, and a little of the shake stays in.
* Under **More options**, turn off **Rotation** in **Steady these**: rotating the picture is what swings the corners into view, although any tilt in the shake then stays.
* The **Full frame** preset uses **Shift and rotate** under **Correction** rather than **Perspective**, because perspective corrections bend the edges and reveal more fill.
* Or choose the **Subtle** preset, which swaps the fill for a very small zoom and keeps the handheld feel.

## How other apps avoid the crop

* **Premiere Pro and After Effects**: Warp Stabilizer’s **Framing** menu has **Stabilize, Synthesize Edges**, which fills the gaps with picture from earlier and later frames. It is real picture, but it can show seams where things in the scene move. See the [Warp Stabilizer guide](https://stabilize.video/warp-stabilizer).
* **CapCut**: its stabilise levels trade steadiness for crop, and the lowest-crop level (shown as **Minimum cut**) keeps most of the frame. See [stabilising in CapCut](https://stabilize.video/stabilize-video-capcut).
* **FFmpeg**: vid.stab’s `optzoom=0` turns off the automatic zoom, with `crop=black` or the default `crop=keep` for the edges. See the [FFmpeg guide](https://stabilize.video/stabilize-video-ffmpeg).
* **Deshaker** and **Topaz Video**: Deshaker can fill the borders from previous and future frames, and Topaz offers a full-frame stabilisation mode.

## Questions about stabilising without cropping

### Why does every stabiliser zoom in?

Because steadying moves each frame against the shake, which exposes an empty strip at the edge. Zooming in is the simplest way to hide it. The alternative is to keep the frame at full size and fill the strip, which is what **Full frame** does.

### Can I stabilise a video and keep the full resolution?

Yes. With **Framing** on **Full frame**, the picture isn’t enlarged at all, and the export keeps the original frame size unless you lower **Size**. The video is still encoded again, so choose **High** under **Quality** to keep the most detail; HDR and 10-bit clips are saved as standard 8-bit video.

### Which edge fill looks the most natural?

**Blurred** on most clips, because the eye reads a soft edge as part of the picture. **Mirrored** suits natural textures such as grass and water; **Black** is best when you’ll crop in an editor afterwards.

### Is Full frame as steady as cropping?

It can be, if you let the picture move far enough. **Max movement** caps how far it may travel: a high value removes as much shake as **Crop to fit** would, with more fill showing, and a low value shows less fill but leaves some movement in.

### Does Smart zoom crop less than Crop to fit?

Usually, yes. **Crop to fit** uses the zoom the worst moment needs for the entire clip, while **Smart zoom** zooms in only around the rough stretches and eases back out afterwards, so calm parts keep more of the frame.

### Can I get rid of the filled edges afterwards?

Yes. Export with **Black** edges and crop or reframe the clip in your editor, choosing exactly how much to lose. Or switch to **Smart zoom** here, which avoids most of the fill and crops only where it must.

## More on shaky footage

* [ Stabilize a video online Smooth out shaky footage in your browser, with nothing uploaded. ](https://stabilize.video/)
* [ Fix a shaky video Which kinds of shake can be removed, which can’t, and the preset for each. ](https://stabilize.video/fix-shaky-video)
* [ Warp Stabilizer settings explained Each setting by symptom: wobble, jelly, crop, errors and slow analysis. ](https://stabilize.video/warp-stabilizer)
* [ Stabilize video in CapCut Desktop, phone and web steps, and which of the three levels to pick. ](https://stabilize.video/stabilize-video-capcut)
* [ Make handheld footage look locked off Hold the frame completely still, like a tripod shot, instead of just smoothing it. ](https://stabilize.video/locked-off-shot)
* [ Fix the rolling shutter (jello) effect Straighten leaning lines and stop the wobble phones and drones add to fast movement. ](https://stabilize.video/rolling-shutter)