Transparent body, adjusting margins.

Hi guys,

First off, NOVICE. Very limited knowledge of word press but have some basic experience with HTML.

All I want to do is to make the main body (i think this is the right terminology) of my homepage, transparent, so that I may see the background image I’ve put in behind the main text.

Tied in with this, I would also like to adjust the margin dimensions of this ‘main body’ so that there isn’t an absurdly large gap between my scrolling photo slideshow and my menu bar.

I thought this would be quite a popular forum topic but have yet to find it answered.

Any help is gratefully received!!

Thanks guys.