Gradient transparent overlays

Hello, wondered if I may ask a question and whether someone would be kind enough to help.  Q: I want to create a design for an invitation which has a transparent overlay in the centre for the invitation wording. So the effect will be that a bit of the design will show through the overlay but not enough to obscure the invitation wording. I have been on Canva and created some overlays with the gradient feature but I’m not quite creating the effect I want. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I don’t use Canva so can’t give any advice there. To get an overlay that you can see through - mess with the opacity in your photo editing software - try at 25% / 50% or somewhere in between 

Thank you!