Is there a better way to darken a background image?

Question

I have the following code in order to darken a background image. A div with a background image then a div inside that which fills it with a background colour with transparency

<div class="slide">
  <div class="slide-overlay">
    <div class="slide-content">
      <h1>Blah blah content</h1>
    </div>
   </div>
</div>

And I am styling it like this

.slide
    background-image: url('/assets/img/bg-cover.jpg')
    background-size: cover
.slide-overlay
    background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, .2)

Does anyone know of a more elegant solution?

Answer 1

The only thing you could simplify is to omit the .slide-overlay container and by adding a pseudo-element ( :before, :after ) instead.

Here would be the solution for this:

 .slide { background-color: tomato; background-size: cover; } .slide-content { position: relative; color: white; } .slide-content:nth-child(2):before, .slide-content:nth-child(3):before { content: ""; position: absolute; left: 0; right: 0; top: 0; bottom: 0; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); } .slide-content:nth-child(3) { z-index: 1; } .slide-content:nth-child(3):before { z-index: -1; } 

 <div class="slide"> <div class="slide-content"> <h1>No effects - just standard text.</h1> </div> <div class="slide-content"> <h1>With overlay - text is below the overlay.</h1> </div> <div class="slide-content"> <h1>With overlay - text is above the overlay.</h1> </div> </div> 

EDIT: Text below pseudo element is no longer affected by the overlay respectively alpha channel.

Answer 2

You can also use multiple backgrounds:

.slide {
    background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)),                                            
                      url('/assets/img/bg-cover.jpg')
    background-size: cover
}