How to set featured images with correct dimensions?

Hello,

I could use some help getting my featured images to display at the correct width and height dimensions. i’ve set featured images to show in my excerpts and main posts, but the images are being cropped to 280 x 280 px when they should be displayed as 422 x 280 px.

i’ve double-checked all the settings, in “settings” and then under “media” in wordpress, and in the “featured image” option within the individual posts in wordpress (which, in the pop up box shows the images are set to “full” size, where it again shows the correct dimensions of 422 x 280. i’ve also tried adjusting the aspect ratio, to no avail). i’ve also tried using thumbnails and setting the thumbnails to the desired dimensions, but that didn’t work. i’ve also checked that the sizes are correct in the ifeature options under “blog” and “templates” in my theme (my theme is ifeature4, the free version. i’ve verified that my featured image settings are all enabled and set to the correct dimensions there). wordpress shows, when i look in media at the individual images, that the images are 422 x 280 px when i upload them. i’m not sure why the left and right sides of the images are being cropped to make the images square.

i’d really like some text to appear above and below the featured images in the excerpts (and if you could tell me how i could do that, it’d be awesome), but at this point i’d be happy to settle for the images displaying with the correct dimensions.

if it helps, my blog address is: https://dashannestokes.com/blog

any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance!

best,

DS