roamer

Thanks for your reply. That worked. But so I can understand and not have to do the duplication of work in the future can you explain what happened to the second layer I created and filled with color that disappeared when I gradiated the photo.

I am making a banner with a picture that is right justified and the remaining part of the banner a color I pull from the photo. I am also trying to make a gradient to smooth the photo into the background. I am able to crop and re-size the photo. I create a New Layer, color pick and fill the background and my banner looks good. I then select the gradient tool and select Transparency mode. I click on the photo and the background color disappeares and starts showing the transparancy checkerboard. I create the gradient and select another tool to deactivate it. After that my background color never reappears. So my banner has a photo that fades into a blank area. What am I doing wrong?