Editing Video for IGTV: Best Premiere Pro Export Settings Revealed

If you’re thinking of joining in on Instagram’s new long-form video platform, IGTV, there’s a few things that you’ll want to know before you start uploading videos. Be sure to bookmark this one for future reference.

Matt Johnson has done the hard work so you don’t have to. In this video guide for Adobe Premiere Pro, he shares everything he’s learned from tinkering around with IGTV since its launch a couple weeks ago. Watch the video above to learn what size your IGTV videos should be, how to export your project with the best quality while under the file size limit, the trick behind uncropped cover photos, and more. It’s a solid gift of knowledge he’s giving away to help elevate the caliber of work on the new video hub. 

As an aside, I want to know how Fstoppers readers have reacted to the launch of IGTV. Has anyone been uploading since day one? Have you completely ignored its existence? What are the best accounts to follow for photographers? Leave a comment below and tell me what you like or don’t like about the whole thing.

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Ryan Mense is a wildlife cameraperson specializing in birds. Alongside gear reviews and news, Ryan heads selection for the Fstoppers Photo of the Day.

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10 Comments

As far as I can tell, this has been a massive fail.

That's sort of what it seems like to me, but I don't follow enough people to really have a clear idea of it. From what I've seen not many people are actually creating content for IGTV, it's more just another place to upload their existing videos. I've noticed reviewer Max Yuryev makes specific edits for IGTV, but the content is identical to the YouTube version. I think that's moving it in the right direction.

I'm really enjoying creating content for it. to the extent that I've been neglecting my youtube channel in recent weeks. https://www.instagram.com/tv/Bk5Tgk0gwXD/

It annoys me that people like Phillip Bloom are decrying it because it is different from what he thinks should be the norm,

I think a lot of people look to the likes of Phillip to see where they should be spending their time and its sad that narrow mindedness has potentially ruined that.

I use him as an example but there are others.

It feels like YouTube videos generally had some substantial effort put into them with regards to story and editing.

IGTV on the other hand generally is just people uploading Instagram stories that are longer than 15 seconds thinking they are so 'Pro' now because they are practically YouTubers now and go around saying video content is totally 'the future'.

I always tried to like Instagram. But their developers make it very hard for me to like it. I am wondering if they try out their programming in the real world. Sounds to me like a pain in the ass. I am proficient in all those programs so I only find it annoying.
But if you are a "non-technical" person you might just stop trying.... 🤦‍♂️
At least they should get the help pages right...

It’s hard to transition one forum of media (youtube - horizontal) to IGTV (vertical). You have to go in and crop reposition your shots. Plus IGTV is about instant and nobody is gojng to be watching longer than 2 mins.

It’s also super time consuming enough producing for YouTube never mind video for insta. Insta entertainment.

Someone will find a way to exploit it, needs some running room for it to takeoff. I don’t it will replace youtube though. Just slightly enhance Instagram.

It's very easy... don't. No vertical video.

Do you crop in on your photographs to make them portrait? You probably dont, you just turn the camera around.

People were saying that no one would watch youtube videos when that was first taking off, I dont think that you can dismiss something that easily, yeah it might not work but it might.

If you dont want to create for it that's fine and you dont need to make any excuses, nobody is going to judge.

IGTV is a portrait medium, it works really well for talking to the camera which is what so many people do.

"Do you crop in on your photographs to make them portrait?" *Eye shiftiness intensifies*

tl;dr ... Don't. No Vertical Video.