How to Quickly Change the Aspect Ratio on Your YouTube Videos

When you upload a video to YouTube, you'll have the option to add a few tags. You're probably aware of the main function of these tags--they make it easier to identify famous people, songs, or subjects that YouTube users might be searching for, so good tag choice can make your video more popular.

However, YouTube tags can also control things like aspect ratio. If you're tired of the big black bars on the sides of all your clips and you don't want to go through the trouble of editing each individual video file, here's a quick guide to changing your aspect ratio on any uploaded video by changing its tags.

Using The Tags - First of all, you'll need to know how to add and remove tags. Open up a YouTube video that you've uploaded to your account and make sure that you're logged in.

Hit "Edit Video," which is towards the top of the screen. This will bring up tags below your video. To add a tag, put it in quotes without any spaces.

To crop a video to YouTube's preferred 16:9 ratio, add the tag " yt:crop=16:9". Cropping will remove the top and bottom of the video to change its aspect ratio and it may zoom in a bit. By the way, you can also put other aspect ratios in there in place of the 16:9, but YouTube uses 16:9, so you might not be happy with the results.

To stretch the video, use the tag "yt:stretch=16:9". Again, you can change that ratio around to 4.3 or anything else that you'd prefer. Stretching might distort your image a bit, but if your video only needs a slight adjustment, it may be a better option than cropping.

Try out each option to get a feel for how they work. Don't forget to remove your tags if you decide that you don't like them. Follow the same process outlined above and simply delete the tags that you don't want to use.

When To Avoid Tags - As you've probably noticed, tags are dumb. They can't see where the top of your kitten's head is and might end up ruining your video. The good news is that you can always take tags off of your video after you've added them, but unfortunately there are some videos that will absolutely need a little smart editing.

Experiment with the cropping and stretching options listed above before you decide to manually crop your video. It can save you a lot of time in the long run, especially if you frequently use your mobile phone or another device with a weird aspect ratio to take your videos.

Have any questions about the aspect ratios on YouTube videos? Post in the comments section below.