I have been experimenting with background images extending full screen and so far so good but what I would like to be able to do is let that image show through in places on my actual web page which is a solid colour.
In effect make a cut out on my page to show the background image, is it possible?

You need to construct your solid color web page format out of rectangles with VSD,...OR, build your solid color web page template with your "windows" as a partially transparent .PNG file to overlay onto your web pages background. The latter would be preferable and would result in fewer files that you have loading.

I got this effect on my site by copying part of the background image, then saving that as a jpeg (smaller file than a transparent png image). So anyplace the background image seems to show through is really the jpeg page background placed over the original image.
This wouldn't work for all images or patterns, But I wanted the effect of a black gradient fading to transparent at the bottom of it. Maybe you could post a link to the site, and we can see what would be the best way to get the effect your after?

Thanks for the ideas, this is only an idea so far so no page available for viewing as yet.
I will play around with all the ideas and see which works best for me and this particular design.

thanks

As a similar issue, is there a way to make the solid rectangle objects more transparent? I would like for my background to show through more, but I still need the solid color so people can read the words.

Here's my site, so you can see what I mean:
http://www.noellepierce.com

I believe the only way would be for you to use a image editor to make your transparent rectangles and add them to your page. There are free editors such as Gimp
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html
Inkscape
http://files.uberdownloads.com/software/vector-graphics/inkscape.html

if you don't have one that is!

Paint.NET also works well and is a FREE alternative with excellent capabilities that will allow you to work with your images in the .PNG mode allowing you to alter the transparency of your images or objects to any degree of transparency.

You can always convert your finished images to .JPG for inclusion on your individual web pages, the .JPG format compiles a smaller file size for both upload and download operations.

For background images I'll frequently dim down an image in order to allow it to be an obvious background image but toning it down to the point where it doesn't conflict with text and images in the foreground.

The jpg format does not support transparency. You have to use gif or png formats.

I was referring to constructing background images with the transparencies incorporated and then converting them to .JPG's for static use within the VSD page format. It's useful only when using the same basic layout structure throughout the project. I try to keep the use of .PNG files limited to smaller graphics files to reduce the total sizes and number of elements required to render the page live.

Thanks, guys. I'll give it a try.