DaVinci Resolve how-to
How to rotate a video in DaVinci Resolve (90°, flip, fill)
Short answer
Select the clip, open the Inspector's Video tab and type 90, -90 or 180 into Transform > Rotation Angle. The Flip Image buttons in the same group mirror the clip horizontally or vertically. After a 90° turn a landscape timeline shows the clip small with bars, so raise Zoom or use a vertical timeline (1080 × 1920) for phone footage.
Checked against: DaVinci Resolve 21 (free and Studio), Windows, Mac and Linux, per the Resolve 21 Reference Manual (July 2026).
Step by step: Inspector Transform
Open Transform
Select the clip and open Inspector > Video > Transform.
Set Rotation Angle
Type 90 (or -90, 180) into Rotation Angle. The clip rotates around its Anchor Point.
Fill the frame
Raise Zoom until the bars disappear, or for vertical phone clips set the timeline to a vertical resolution so the turned clip fills it.
Mirror instead (optional)
Click Flip Horizontal to reverse the image left to right, or Flip Vertical to turn it upside down.
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Rotation values
| You want | Rotation Angle | Then |
|---|---|---|
| A quarter turn | 90 or -90 (the sign sets the direction) | Zoom or vertical timeline |
| Upside down | 180 | Nothing else |
| Straighten a horizon | 1 to 3 either way | Zoom 1.03 to 1.06 |
If it doesn't work
| What you see | Fix |
|---|---|
| Rotated the wrong way | Flip the sign: if 90 turned it the wrong way, type -90. |
| Black corners after a small rotation | Raise Zoom slightly. |
| Rotation animates | Rotation Angle has keyframes. Click its reset button to remove them. |
| Need to rotate many clips | Select them all; the Inspector changes Rotation Angle on every selected clip. |
Questions people ask
How do I rotate a video 90 degrees in DaVinci Resolve?
Inspector > Transform > Rotation Angle = 90 or -90, then zoom or change the timeline to vertical.
How do I flip a video in DaVinci Resolve?
Use the Flip Image buttons under Transform in the Inspector.
Why is my phone video sideways in Resolve?
Some phones store orientation as metadata. Rotate the clip in the Inspector, or fix the clip's orientation in its Clip Attributes.
More DaVinci Resolve guides
Sources and how we checked
- DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual: Transform: Rotation Angle and Flip Image (p. 1246) (checked 2026-10-05)
The Clip Attributes orientation option follows Resolve's current menus as described by several current guides; the manual describes the Rotation Angle and Flip controls.
Reviewed October 5, 2026 by the Koldflux team. Each step is compared with DaVinci Resolve's own documentation (linked above) and with the top search results for this task; where they disagree, the maker's documentation wins. Steps without a source link follow the menu names that several current guides agree on.