Clip photo to fixed but non-standard aspect ratio

I am trying to clip photos to a specific aspect ratio (3 x 1) for the top banner of a website but can't find a way to lock the aspect ratio to that value. It only seems to be possible to lock it at the "current" value which is that of the original photo, or the fixed presets of 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9. Is there a work-around for this? The only other thing I have thought of is overlaying a rectangle of the right proportions and then "Intersect shapes", but it would be useful if I could actually use the clip tool.

Just create a black rectangle at the 3:1 ratio, place on top of your original photo (insuring that the rectangle is smaller so it completely fits within the existing photo). Select both and Arrange/Combine Shapes/Intersect - now your photo is 3:1 aspect ratio. Simple. (I prefer to combine shapes for this kind of work, then to ever use the Clip tool. For me, the clip tool is an outlier tool useful sometimes, but not for most things.)

Create a rectangle of your preferred size, then drag'n'drop an image file on top of it.

Or create the rectangle put it behind your photo select both (click and drag with the selector tool to marquee select) and hit Q on your keyboard.

Thanks to all, I subsequently figured out one of those workarounds but wasn't sure if I had actually missed or was miss-using a facility in the clipping tool.
Steve

I just tried all those methods and the way I ended up getting the most satisfactory results was creating a rectangle in a 3:1 ratio and using the fill tool bitmap filled it with the photo then using the fill handles I could alter the fill so it retained all of the original photo elements and looked very like the original, just the ratio changed then I noticed that the selection handles were not like I would expect so I used the photo tool and cropped close in. I don't know why this worked but it did. Anyone know why or if I miss-used something?

I'm enclosing the xar file so you can tell if and where I messed up. The photo I used was something I received in email so I probably shouldn't use it but it was only a test.

Attachment 104212

Don't understand what you mean Larry. Neither of the images on your xar file are 3:1 The only way to get that photo to fit into a 3:1 is to distort it's height by reducing it.

Thanks Egg, I thought I might have messed up somewhere. I originally made the rectangle 1500px X 500px and filled that, when I used the fill handles it seemed to make the image smaller with about an inch or two on all sides indicating that there was something invisible that did not fit in that space, that's when I used the photo tool. It sure gave me the impression that it worked. But, I'll take your word for it that it is faulty.

same problems thanks for info