How to Do a Quick Zoom in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2022)

Adding motion to your edits brings life and energy to the final product. While dolly shots and camera zooms are great when captured in-camera, you can also create convincing zoom effects in post production. A quick zoom into a subject’s face during a dramatic moment, or a slow push into a landscape, can add a lot of visual interest without any additional filming.

Today we go over two ways to create a zoom effect in Adobe Premiere Pro CC: a quick technique using the built-in Motion controls, and an advanced technique using the Transform effect with motion blur.

Quick Technique: Basic Zoom

1. Open your project and import your footage onto the timeline.
2. Click on the clip and go to Effect Controls.
3. Find the Motion section. Click the stopwatch next to both Position and Scale to start keyframing.
4. At the current frame, leave the values at their defaults (this is the starting point of the zoom).
5. Move forward 5-10 frames for a fast zoom, or 30-60 frames for a slower push.
6. Increase the Scale value. For 1080p footage, keep it under about 150% to avoid visible pixelation. For 4K footage in a 1080p sequence, you can go much higher since you have extra resolution to work with.
7. Adjust the Position to reframe the shot on whatever you are zooming into (a face, an object, a detail).
8. Play it back. You now have a basic zoom.

Advanced Technique: Zoom With Motion Blur

The basic method works, but it lacks motion blur. Real camera zooms have a natural blur during fast movements. The Transform effect gives you this.

1. Follow steps 1-2 from above.
2. Go to the Effects panel and search for Transform (under Video Effects > Distort). Drag it onto the clip.
3. In Effect Controls, find the Transform effect. Uncheck Use Composition’s Shutter Angle and set the Shutter Angle to about 90 degrees.
4. Click the stopwatch next to Position and Scale under the Transform effect (not the Motion section above it). This is important because only the Transform effect supports motion blur.
5. Set your starting values at the current frame.
6. Move forward 5-10 frames. Scale up and reposition just like in the quick technique.
7. Play it back. The zoom now has natural-looking motion blur on the movement.

Customizing the Motion

For a more dynamic feel, you can ease the keyframes:

1. Right click the first keyframe and select Temporal Interpolation > Ease Out.
2. Right click the second keyframe and select Temporal Interpolation > Ease In.
3. This makes the zoom start slowly, speed up in the middle, and slow down as it settles. It feels much more organic than a linear zoom.

Tips

• 4K gives you more room. In a 4K-to-1080p workflow, your footage starts at 50% scale. You can zoom all the way to about 115% before any quality loss. With 1080p source in a 1080p sequence, you only have about 20% of zoom room before things get soft.
• Use the zoom for emphasis. A quick zoom on a reaction, a key object, or a dramatic line of dialogue adds punch to the moment.
• Combine with a shake effect right at the end of a fast zoom for extra impact.
• Zoom out for reveals. The same technique works in reverse. Start zoomed in and scale back out to reveal the full scene.
• Match zooms to music. Time your zoom keyframes to hit on the beat for music videos and montages.

That is how you create a zoom effect in Premiere Pro. The basic method is fast, and the Transform method adds that extra layer of polish with motion blur.