Adobe Premiere Pro is one of the very best tools to create and edit videos. With an endless array of features, you can make customizations to every clip that you’re working with. That includes learning how to zoom in Adobe Premiere Pro. With this technique, you can enlarge your footage to focus on a certain area.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to zoom in on Premiere Pro. Fortunately, it’s a quick and easy process. As a video editor, I find myself doing it frequently! Once you know how to zoom in Adobe Premiere, chances are you’ll be just the same.
Why Use Zoom in Premiere Pro?
Before we learn how to zoom in Premiere Pro, it pays to ask “why?” After all, cameras can zoom in when you capture footage.
Why might you want to add zoom effects later? Well, imagine that you’re working with footage that you’ve already captured. But when it comes time to make edits, you find yourself wishing that you’d thought to zoom in. When you know how to zoom in on video in Premiere Pro, you can easily assuage those regrets. How? Just by zooming in later when you make your edits.
Similarly, it offers you more versatility. If you zoom in with your camera in real time, you’ll lose wider details forever, because they’re never captured. But when you add zoom effects in post-processing, you’ll retain the original clip. Truly, it’s a great way to give yourself more flexibility even while focusing on key parts of your video’s contents.
Cameras capture higher resolution footage than ever before. You can make the most of it once you learn how to zoom in on video in Premiere Pro.
With that in mind, let’s get started. In moments, you’ll know how to zoom in on a video in Premiere Pro.
How to Zoom In on Premiere Pro (Step by Step Tutorial Guide)
Let’s learn how to zoom in on a clip in Premiere. We’ll look at two basic approaches. First, we’ll tackle how to zoom in on a full clip. Then, we’ll learn how to zoom in on Adobe Premiere in real time – where the zoom effect itself appears in your video.
We’ll begin by using a premium stock video clip from Envato Elements. With millions of these clips to choose from, it’s easy to find the perfect footage for your next project. Plus, Elements includes thousands of Adobe Premiere Pro video templates as well.
Here, we’ll use the Big Sur, California, #3 clip from Elements. Download it today to follow along!
Go ahead and launch your Adobe Premiere Pro project, and become familiar with the layout. Shown below are the menus and options needed to learn how to zoom in on Adobe Premiere.
At the bottom of the screen is the Timeline. There, you’ll see the video clip that we’re demonstrating with. A quick tip: want to learn how to zoom in on timeline Premiere Pro? Pull on the slider in the lower left corner and you’re all set!
Above, it’s previewed in the Program Monitor in the upper center. And on the left, find the Effect Controls panel. This is where zoom effects Premiere Pro are added and controlled.
If you don’t see Effect Controls, simply click on the Window dropdown menu at the top of your screen. Then, from the options, click Effect Controls and the panel will appear.
Now, let’s look at how to zoom in Premiere Pro on a full clip. In other words, you want the entirety of the clip to be zoomed in beyond how it was captured. To begin, click on the video clip in the Timeline. When you do, you’ll see a thin white border appear around the clip. This signifies that it’s selected.
Then, on your keyboard, press the Up arrow key. This jumps the playhead to the first frame in the clip. The playhead is the vertical blue bar visible in the Timeline. It represents the frame on which you will be making edits.
To see how to zoom in Premiere Pro, next navigate to the Effect Controls panel. In the Motion group, you’re looking for two key options. These are labeled Position and Scale. To zoom in Premiere Pro, you’ll be working with both. Let’s use these to zoom in on the bridge in the lower center of our clip.
Let’s start with Scale. In essence, this is the Adobe Premiere Pro zoom effect. With your clip still selected, click the stopwatch icon beside Scale. This adds a keyframe at the first frame of the clip, representing the scale. Keyframes control the given parameters of a clip at a certain frame. Set scale and position with keyframes, and your zoom effects are locked in.
After clicking the stopwatch, notice the Scale options. By default, the value will be 100. This is “normal”, unedited zoom in Premiere. To zoom in, choose a value higher than 100. For example, we can set this value to 140.
Watch what happens in the Program Monitor – the clip zooms in. But there’s a problem. We’ve zoomed in on the center of the clip, but the bridge that we’re focusing on is now near the bottom. The fix is easy, and it’s where the Position menu comes in.
Next, click the Position stopwatch. This sets a position keyframe in conjunction with the scale frame. Now, you can use the vertical and horizontal position axes to move the clip. Let’s adjust so that the bridge moves nearer to the center of our frame!
That’s it. You just learned how to zoom in on Premiere Pro clips. But let’s explore another option for even more dramatic effects.
How to Zoom In on a Clip in Premiere
Above, we zoomed in on a full clip. But what if you want to zoom in on a clip while it plays? In other words, you want the zoom-in effect to appear onscreen. It adds a dramatic effect, and it’s quite easy to do. To demonstrate, let’s use the same video clip, reset to its original zoom level. But this time, we’ll do a gradual zoom on the bridge.
In the Timeline, click and drag the playhead onto the frame where you want the zoom effect to begin. Until this point, the clip will remain at its default, unedited zoom level. Then, return to the Effect Controls panel. Repeat the earlier steps of clicking on the stopwatch icons beside Position and Scale. But don’t make any adjustments to either parameter.
What you’ve done here is add a keyframe telling Premiere Pro to lock in the default position and scale values. Now, click and drag the playhead again, back in the Timeline. This time, place it at the frame where you want the clip zoom effect to be completed. In other words, between the first keyframe and the location of the playhead, the zoom effect will occur onscreen.
With the playhead thus moved, find the Add/Remove Keyframe button next to Position. Click it once. Then, do the same for Scale. Now, make adjustments to the position and scale settings. Again, zoom in with scale, and move the bridge to the center using position.
Now, when you play the clip back from the beginning, watch what happens. In real time, the clip will zoom in as it plays. Just like that, you’ve learned how to zoom in on a clip in Premiere.
You may have noticed that the zoom effects you just added are a bit choppy and abrupt. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. In the Effect Controls timeline, right-click on the first keyframe beside Position. (It will be the one on the left). From the dropdown, hover over Temporal Interpolation, then choose Ease Out. Repeat this step for the first Scale keyframe as well.
We’re almost done. To wrap up, right-click on each of the ending keyframes as well. Return to Temporal Interpolation, but this time, choose Ease In. When you’ve finished with both, play your video back again. As you can see, the motion zoom effects are much smoother and more cinematic. It’s the smoothest method for how to zoom in on video in Premiere Pro.
In a few moments, you’ve learned how to zoom in Adobe Premiere. And you saw how to zoom in on a clip in Premiere as well. There are countless other uses for zoom options available.
For example, think of how to make text zoom in Premiere Pro. Keyframes again are your friend. With a Text track on your timeline, you can add Scale keyframes to zoom in on your words. Each of these skills are another approach of how to zoom in on video in Premiere Pro.
The Best Source for Premium Adobe Premiere Video Templates (With Unlimited Downloads)
The top source for the very best premium Adobe Premiere Pro templates is Envato Elements. With thousands of options to choose from, finding the ideal candidate is easy. The Elements offer is powerful. For a flat monthly rate, you can download and use as many of these premium templates as you want!
And that’s not all. As a subscriber, you’ll enjoy access to over 14 million unique digital assets of all kinds. Among these, you’ll find fonts, stock photos, video clips, music, and so much more. It’s the perfect companion for all of your creative ventures in 2023 and beyond.
Sure, you can find free templates around the web. But they simply cannot measure up to the quality and style of premium Envato Elements offerings. When you embrace a premium Elements Premiere Pro template, you’ll enjoy:
- Studio-quality cinematic features. You don’t have to be a video producer to succeed with these templates. You’ll enjoy stunning styles across countless themes.
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- Inspired styling. Struggling to decide how best to share your videos? Premium templates offer design inspirations galore.
You know how to zoom in on Adobe Premiere. And the best way to succeed in all your projects is with Envato Elements. As you can see, it’s by far the very best value for creatives like you in 2023 and beyond. Join today and start exploring the vast library. You’ll be glad you did.
You Just Learned How To Zoom In on a Video in Premiere Pro
Using a few simple steps, you’ve learned how to zoom in on video in Premiere Pro. As you can see, it’s an amazing way to transform the look and feel of every video clip that you work with. And it’s a powerful way to add versatility and new options to footage that you’ve already captured.
Now that you know how to zoom in on a video in Premiere Pro, think of your options. What will you create next? How can you use your new skills to create even more amazing video projects of your very own? Get started today!