Can you set an image that is part of a custom content type as the background image in a view?
Set all of your field to hidden, then add a Global: Custom text field (not hidden). In that field you add all of your fields back via the replacement patterns, making sure to wrap them in divs (or appropriate tags) with appropriate classes, and that your image is contained in the outer div. something like this:

&lt;div class="image-wrapper"&gt;
  [image]
  &lt;h2 class="title"&gt;[title]&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;


Then apply CSS to get the overlay effect to your liking. Text Blocks Over Image