Late to the game, but I found this method is extremely intuitive. https://codepen.io/adamchenwei/pen/BRNxJr
CSS
.imageContainer {
border: 1px black solid;
width: 450px;
height: 200px;
overflow: hidden;
}
.imageHolder {
border: 1px red dotted;
height: 100%;
display:flex;
align-items: center;
}
.imageItself {
height: auto;
width: 100%;
align-self: center;
}
HTML
<div class="imageContainer">
<div class="imageHolder">
<img class="imageItself" src="http://www.fiorieconfetti.com/sites/default/files/styles/product_thumbnail__300x360_/public/fiore_viola%20-%202.jpg" />
</div>
</div>