beginner at photoshop: how to fade one edge on photo into a solid graphic bar

I am creating a banner with a photo on the left and I want the edge of the photo to extend to the left and fade from photo to solid graphic bar. I will then be writing text in the color bar for the banner. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks!

Make sure your picture is in a layer above the background color. With your picture layer selected (as you can see by the blue highlight in the layers panel), click the mask button (bottom red circle). Then, with the mask selected (see the black stroke around it's icon in the top red circle; it is selected by default), use the gradient tool to paint the mask white to black. White reveals, black conceals. If you need to edit the picture layer, you can click the layer icon (just to the left of the mask icon in the top red circle). If you click the chain icon connecting mask and layer, you can scale/move them independently. Click back where the chain was to re-link them.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1BN5qXvY1lrCHzPGmu R2ngsa0qWal0>

Awesome..thanks! this works perfect!

Or you can add a blank layer above the image layer and use the gradient tool going from a solid to transparent

Buko's method would have been my choice just for its simplicity.