Hi Deter,

You did not indicate which version of MEP that you are using. If 2014Plus or Premium, then see pages:

27-28 and 98 for handles and transparency

See the first image below. I did not do all of the steps as most are just repetitions.

Simply insert the first image, click on it, drag the centre handle down to inscrease transparency, which will make the image partially faded. Set it to what you want. If you want it to fade in, then also drag the left fader handle to the right.

Insert your second image, do the same but with less transparency, that is, do not drag the handle down so far.

Insert your video, do not adjust the transparency.

Insert fourth and fifth images and do as above. You can copy the effects from the first 2 images and paste them onto the 2 right images if you want them identical, or copy and paste the images with the effects if they are exactly the same.

I don't think that you will like the result because all it does is make your image darker. You might want to try using the Video Effect, Sharpness, Artistic blur instead, or a combination this with a partial fade as above. In the image below, at the right, I did an artistic blur, then added an oval mask and changed the size to suit what I wanted. The result is in the second image below. The mask feature may not be available in the regular version, only in Plus or Premium. If you have either of these, see pages 138-139 in the manual for masks.

If you can do masks, then play around with them to get the effect that you want. Look at some of the tutorials to see how to apply them.