So you’ve just captured an amazing video just to find out it was shot upside down or in the wrong orientation. Don’t fret! We will help you fix that either by rotating or flipping a video.
To put it simply, it’s rotating the video picture around its axis at a precise angle. The image’s data remains untouched; only the image’s orientation is altered.
If a video is upside-down, it’s usually because it was accidentally filmed that way, although sometimes videos are intentionally shot that way too. It must be rotated 180 degrees around its axis to fix the accidental upside-down.
Before rotating, videos are often leveled. In other words, if your movie has a slightly off-level sky, you may later adjust the horizon by rotating the video a few degrees. Now, if you’re going to rotate the video in this manner, you’ll also need to crop it.
What Does It Mean To “Flip” A Video, And Why Is It Done?
In contrast to rotating a video, you can mirror a video, it will reflect it in either the horizontal or vertical axis. Working within that axis’s confines will essentially “mirror” the image and turn the composition upside down.
Flipping can be seen as a form of self-reflection or self-analysis. It can change the relative orientation of the elements, but not their position.
Due to this, flipping and rotating are easily misunderstood; flipping is sometimes used to correct videos that have been accidentally captured upside down. Flipping the movie along the horizontal axis will display the right side correctly up.
It is easy to see the difference between a flipped video and one spun 180 degrees when you compare the two videos side by side. A flipped video will look like a mirror image. However, there is one exception: videos produced with a selfie camera are usually mirrored and can be corrected by flipping rather than rotating.
Which One Should You Use?
Answering this question is quite simple: you should just rotate the movie in question if you want to keep the same video composition. You should flip the video if you need to change its composition and make it appear more realistic on the screen (and correct selfie videos in the process).
Overall, it’s important to note that, while rotating a video is a more general transformation, flipping a video is a considerably more exciting one that can make a major impact on the final product of your movie. When using a video mirroring application, it should be used with caution and only in situations where you want your video to appear on another screen.
How To Rotate A Video
Windows Media Maker
Despite its discontinuation, Windows Movie Maker is still installed on many PCs.
Here are the steps to rotate a video:
- Open Windows Movie Maker.
- Select the video to rotate.
You can import a clip into the movie generator in two ways.
Either drop the video clip from a location on your PC or select “Add films and photos” from the Home toolbar.
- Flip the video.
Select “Visual Effects” and then “Mirror.”
To see the Mirror, you’ll need to enlarge the tab.
Once you’ve discovered it, select “Rotate Left” or “Rotate Right” to rotate it.
You can try out several angles until you find one that works for you.
- Save your video
Select ‘File’ and ‘Save movie’! You’re done!
iMovie
What if you have to rotate your movie on a Mac instead of Windows? We have you covered.
How to rotate a crooked film in iMovie on Mac:
- Open iMovie.
Start by launching iMovie.
Use the “Create new” option to import the video. “Movie” and “Trailer” should show up.
- Import media.
“Movie” > “Import Media”
Browse your collection for clips to import.
- Edit the footage.
After importing the video, the Media pane will appear. Click the clip, select “Crop” in the Preview window.
- Reverse the video.
Choose the direction of your video.
- Remove the dark bars
As you rotate the video, expect black bars above and below (or on the sides).
Use the Crop tool to remove the bars.
Drag the handles to remove the bars.
After eliminating the black bars, select the blue check in the right corner of the video canvas.
- Make a video backup
Click “Share” to save the video after it has been rotated.
Then pick “File” and follow the prompts to name and save the file.
How To Flip A Video
Windows Media Player
Microsoft Windows Movie Maker is primarily intended to edit films and commercial videos. It’s preferable to use browser extensions specifically developed for this purpose rather than the default browser.
If you’re a seasoned user, though, you should follow these procedures:
- Bring the video you want to flip into Movie Maker by dragging it into the program.
- Scroll down to the Mirror section of the Visual Effects tab and click on it. Now, as shown in the screenshot below, select Mirror Vertical to flip the image vertically and Mirror Horizontal to flip the image horizontally to flip the image vertically.
iMovie
Use iMovie, a built-in Mac software, to flip your movie.
Steps to vertically flip your video:
Add the video to your timeline. It’s selected if it’s highlighted in yellow.
Select the video you want to flip.
- If you want to turn it vertically, click the Cropping button above the Viewer panel, then click one of the Rotate twice.
- Click on the cropping icon to rotate it.
How to turn a video horizontally:
To choose a video from the timeline, click the Clip filter and audio effects button above the Viewer panel.
- Select the Clip filter and audio effects icon.
In the Choose Clip Filter box, select the Flipped clip filter.
- Flipped from the Choose Clip Filter window.
Conclusion
Now that you know the difference between rotating and flipping a video and when to use it, you decide what works for your project! Use this knowledge wisely!
