CSS transitions & timing seem off

Question

First I am open to any ideas / suggestions. I desire to keep the home page as is as far as using the variety of scenic images. The problem I run into is of course what is readable font color on one image is not very readable on another. So I googled some ideas and found a darkened area / backdrop to be the most professional. Great now it works well for all light images but not dark images. So I came up with the idea of switching font color and background depending on the image (dark or light). The trouble I am having is that the font / background switch about 1-2 seconds before the image does??? Further I think I would like to add a cross fade or some animation effect to make the switch soother. Here is the site:

http://alexandredairy.com/staging/

Again I am open to any ideas / suggestions

So the first thing I did was to name the images with a dark or light prefix so the css can switch accordingly. So I have twenty or so images named like so:

Dark_Cover1_PastrDairy.jpg or Light_Cover1_PastrPoultry.jpg

My CSS is:

/*Back ground shading so we can read text*/
.lighttextbackground
{
color:#000;
background-color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.35);
box-shadow:0px 0px 10px 10px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.35);
}

.lighttextbackground a
{
color:#000;
}

.lighttextbackground p
{
color:#000;
}

.darktextbackground
{
color:#fff;
background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.35);
box-shadow:0px 0px 10px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.35);
}

.darktextbackground a
{
color:#fff;
}

.darktextbackground p
{
color:#fff;
}

A typical HTML element that I want the effect on is:

<div id="pageslogan" class="slogan lighttextbackground">
....code...
</div>

As for the jquery I am posting just the function(s) I think relevant. I can definately post more if needed or you can browse the site and get everything using developer tools (F12).

function changeImageHandler(){
    var imgSRC;
$("#inner ul>li").eq(currImg).addClass("active");
$("#inner ul>li").eq(prevImg).removeClass("active");

    loadComplete = false;
image.addClass("topImg").css({"z-index":1});
imgSRC = imageSRCLink.eq(currImg).attr("href");

imageHolder.append("<img class='bottomImg' src="+imgSRC+" alt=''>");
$(".bottomImg").css({display:"none", "z-index":0}).bind("load", loadImageHandler);
$("#imgSpinner").css({display:"block"}).stop().animate({opacity:1}, 500, "easeOutCubic");

imgName = imageSRCLink.eq(currImg).attr("href").split('/')[2];
TextReadabilityHandler(imgName.substring(0, 5));

discription.eq(currImg).css({left:$(document).width()*dragDirection, display:"block"}).animate({left:0}, 1000, "easeInOutCubic");
    discription.eq(prevImg).animate({left:$(document).width()*dragDirection*-1}, 1000, "easeInOutCubic", function(){
            discription.eq(prevImg).css({display:"none"})

        });
    }

About 3/4 the above function you see TextReadabilityHandler which is where the switch takes place:

function TextReadabilityHandler(_imgNameSwitch)
    {
        if(_imgNameSwitch == 'Light')
        {
            $("#pagetitle").attr('class', 'sitetitle lighttextbackground');
            $("#pagemenu").attr('class', 'sf-menu lighttextbackground');
            $("#pageslogan").attr('class', 'slogan lighttextbackground');
        }
        else if (_imgNameSwitch == 'Dark_')
        {
            $("#pagetitle").attr('class', 'sitetitle darktextbackground');
            $("#pagemenu").attr('class', 'sf-menu darktextbackground');
            $("#pageslogan").attr('class', 'slogan darktextbackground');
        }
        else
        { alert(_imgNameSwitch); }
    }

So I was thinking to do a crossfade while the image switches. Where I am stumped is how to implement. As I have it written the html element is updated with a new class and that change is applied instantly. How / where would I implement a .fadeOut() / .fadeIn()??

Thank You

As a side note I tried submitting my site to csscreator.com for critical review / suggestions on the design with no feedback. Any suggestion where I can get the design critiqued would be helpful.

---

Edit

Thank you user3037493 and Zeaklous.

You both broke through the road block I was up against. Here is what your answers triggered in my brain.

I added a custom namespace (for readability)

/* Text Readability switching */

var txtread = 
{
    onReady: function(_imgname)
    {
        txtread.fadeoutText(_imgname);

        txtread.fadeinText();
    },

    fadeoutText: function(_imgname)
    {
        $("#pagetitle").fadeOut(1250);
        $("#pagemenu").fadeOut(1250);
        $("#pageslogan").fadeOut(1250);
        $("#sitecopy").fadeOut(1550, txtread.TextReadabilityHandler(_imgname));
    },

    fadeinText: function()
    {
        $("#pagetitle").fadeIn(1250);
        $("#pagemenu").fadeIn(1250);
        $("#pageslogan").fadeIn(1250);
        $("#sitecopy").fadeIn(1250);
    },

    TextReadabilityHandler: function(_imgNameSwitch)
    {
        if(_imgNameSwitch == 'Light')
        {
            $("#pagetitle").attr('class', 'sitetitle lighttextbackground');
            $("#pagemenu").attr('class', 'sf-menu lighttextbackground');
            $("#pageslogan").attr('class', 'slogan lighttextbackground');
        }
        else if (_imgNameSwitch == 'Dark_')
        {
            $("#pagetitle").attr('class', 'sitetitle darktextbackground');
            $("#pagemenu").attr('class', 'sf-menu darktextbackground');
            $("#pageslogan").attr('class', 'slogan darktextbackground');
        }
        else
        { alert(_imgNameSwitch); }
    }
}

and then I modified the these two lines in ChangeImageHandler.

imgName = imageSRCLink.eq(currImg).attr("href").split('/')[2];
TextReadabilityHandler(imgName.substring(0, 5));

to

imgName = imageSRCLink.eq(currImg).attr("href").split('/')[2];
txtread.onReady(imgName.substring(0, 5));

So the whole thing looks like this:

function changeImageHandler(){
        var imgSRC;
        $("#inner ul>li").eq(currImg).addClass("active");
        $("#inner ul>li").eq(prevImg).removeClass("active");


        loadComplete = false;
        image.addClass("topImg").css({"z-index":1});
        imgSRC = imageSRCLink.eq(currImg).attr("href");

        imageHolder.append("<img class='bottomImg' src="+imgSRC+" alt=''>");
        $(".bottomImg").css({display:"none", "z-index":0}).bind("load", loadImageHandler);
        $("#imgSpinner").css({display:"block"}).stop().animate({opacity:1}, 500, "easeOutCubic");


        imgName = imageSRCLink.eq(currImg).attr("href").split('/')[2];
       txtread.onReady(imgName.substring(0, 5));



        discription.eq(currImg).css({left:$(document).width()*dragDirection, display:"block"}).animate({left:0}, 1000, "easeInOutCubic");
        discription.eq(prevImg).animate({left:$(document).width()*dragDirection*-1}, 1000, "easeInOutCubic", function(){
            discription.eq(prevImg).css({display:"none"})

        });
    }

and now I have my fade in / out effect and while the text blocks are faded out I do a quickie class change by making the copyright fadeout take a bit longer (ensuring vast majority of content is gone) then executing the return function to switch classes as seen in my custom namespace here:

$("#sitecopy").fadeOut(1550, txtread.TextReadabilityHandler(_imgname));

Of course nothing works perfectly and for some reason I haven't figured out yet one element is not fading in / out?? That is off topic here so I posted a new SO question here for that one.

Element refusing to fade out or in

Answer 1

You could try doing it yourself as this SO answer and corresponding example describe, but depending on the image it is liable to be incorrect more so than if you went with an actual plugin

Background Check is what I would likely recommend. It's not exactly what you are requesting, but it changes the background of elements as well as the text on top of it. One added, you can use it simply by declaring

BackgroundCheck.init({
  targets: '.ui', // Select the divs to have the background changed
  images: '.thumbnail' // Select the list of images to be analyzed
});

Answer 2

sorry, i dont have enough reputation to comment on your question, and this answer is really just a comment.... white text with black background is going to be easier to read. here is a JSfiddle http://jsfiddle.net/Kyle_Sevenoaks/ZnfED/1/ basically, the css for your .slogan p you would make the color to be white and add this text shadow

{text-shadow:
-1px -1px 0 #000,
1px -1px 0 #000,
-1px 1px 0 #000,
1px 1px 0 #000;}

edited to add: to have the textbackground change before the image, call TEXTREADABILITYHANDLER at the beginning of the changeImageHandler function and maybe try putting a delay on the imgSpinner.animate per http://api.jquery.com/delay/