css? something else? I want to have image overlayed on a slideshow in header

Well, I've been banging my head against a brick wall for a while now. :frusty:

I'm trying to get a simple slideshow (smoothgallery by jondesign.net) into my header with a semi-transparent image overlayed on top. I managed to do this with a different template, the 'flowers' one with the bright orange tiger-lily (fixed width), but when I decided to switch to the 'mostlygrey' template which has a simpler, fluid layout, the code didn't work the same way.

I'm definitely greener when it comes to coding, but I thought I'd be able to get it working again with the new template. 6 hours later, I'm ready to tear my hair out...

I just can't get the slideshow to show up underneath of the png image. I've tried again and again with different combinations of div tags and css styling, but either I haven't found that winning combination yet or it just isn't possible with what I know right now.

The only way that I could get it to appear in the same space as the overlay image was to give it an absolute position; but I couldn't figure out how to get it behind the overlay instead of in front. I'm sure this is possible with a few edits to the stylesheet and the tpl_header, but I think I need another view cause I just can't figure out what to do.

The site isn't live yet, but apparently wamp can be put online so others can view? I can also any code that might be helpful, I'm just not sure exactly what would be useful.

yeesh I don't know why I can't figure this darn stuff out.. every time I think I've made some progress I find something else that just stumps me.:wacko:

thanks for any input you've got, everybody. you all are always very helpful :smile: