Nikon D3100 Aspect Ratio?

I just got the camera, and my biggest gripe at the moment is that it shoots photos in 4:3 aspect ratio, which is the ugliest crop I've ever seen. I know that you can use the retouch menu to go back and crop each photo individually but is there a way you can shoot in 16:9 instead? It would be much appreciated if anyone knew.

If you can, your manual will tell you.

The default aspect ratio would normally be 3:2 for that camera.
If it is shooting at 4:3 then it must be camera adjustable.
Hunt around in the menus - it will be there somewhere

No way to do that. The best way to go about it is to shoot as is (3:2 not 4:3) framing consistently then crop all your photos in one go using the same crop settings. IF you don't have a program to do that, try Irfanview. It's free.

The D3100 only shoots 16:9 during video.

Actually the aspect ratio of the D3100 is 3:2 the same as a 35 mm still camera.

The only time the camera shoots in 16:9 aspect ratio is when you are shooting Full HD or HD video.

If you want to shoot panoramic shots, you will just have to shoot two or three overlapping images and then merge them in Photoshop.