Maybe a helpful alternative for a plain-colored background:
Put a LinearLayout over the ImageView and use the LinearLayout as a opacity filter. In the following a small example with a black background:
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/layout"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#FF000000" >
<RelativeLayout
android:id="@+id/relativeLayout2"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
<ImageView
android:id="@+id/imageView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:src="@drawable/icon_stop_big" />
<LinearLayout
android:id="@+id/opacityFilter"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#CC000000"
android:orientation="vertical" >
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
Vary the android:background attribute of the LinearLayout between #00000000 (fully transparent) and #FF000000 (fully opaque).