Full Photos in iMovie

Hi, meggsie6,

Before creating the project, click on iMovie/Preferences in the main iMovie menu. In the preferences box that appears, choose the "Fit" option under the Photo Placement heading.

After doing the above, all photos imported into an iMovie project will have the Fit setting applied. The photos will display in full view, although may have black bars on the sides or on top and bottom to make it fit the 16:9 dimensions of the iMovie screen.

For a project that is already in progress without having the default Fit preference set, you can apply the Fit setting to any clip by selecting the clip and then clicking on the crop tool (the one that looks like intersecting angles) in the tool bar at the top of the iMovie project screen. After clicking on the Crop tool a control box will appear that lets to choose the photo placement setting: Fit, Crop to Fill, or Ken Burns. Select Fit.

-- Rich

Looking at the iMovie Settings on my iPhone 14 pro, I see nothing there that addresses your issue for iMovie for iPhone. iMovie for iPhone is more limited in may respects than iMovie for Mac. The two iMovie apps are very different in their architecture. I don't believe that iPhone iMovie has a way to set preferences (settings) like Mac iMovie does. However, I don't use iPhone iMovie much, to the iMovie for iOS forum may be where you should post your question.

Here's a link to the iMovie iOS help menu that describes how to zoom a clip in and out by pinching.

iMovie for iOS - Apple Community

The help entry that appears to apply to your situation is this one:

With iPhone iMovie there also is a way to adjust borders. You can find the instructions from the Help link above.

-- Rich

Here's the link to the iMovie for iOS forum:

iMovie for iOS - Apple Community

-- Rich

I hadn’t noticed that you were wokimg with the iMovie iPhone app. Sorry.

As this forum is for Mac iMovie you could try posting your question on the iOS iMovie forum.

— Rich