Original source with some code modifications [a) tutorial is grayscale to color on hover, b) IE compatability]
*change slidebox to whatever your container div for the image is
*can be used in conjunction with other animations. Here we grayscale an image in conjunction with hover overlay to create minimal distraction for the overlay color on hover.
<script type="text/javascript"> // On window load. This waits until images have loaded which is essential $(window).load(function(){ // Fade in images so there isn't a color "pop" document load and then on window load $(".slidebox img").fadeIn(500); // clone image $('.slidebox img').each(function(){ var el = $(this); el.css({"position":"absolute"}).wrap("<div class='img_wrapper' style='display: inline-block'>").clone().addClass('img_grayscale').css({"position":"absolute","z-index":"2","opacity":"1"}).insertBefore(el).queue(function(){ var el = $(this); el.parent().css({"width":this.width,"height":this.height}); el.dequeue(); }); // Brother version var ua = $.browser; // IE < 9 Brother if ( ua.msie && ua.version.slice(0,3) < 9 ) { el.css('filter',"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(grayScale=1)"); } // Canvas Brother else { this.src = grayscale(this.src); } }); // Fade image $('.slidebox img').mouseout(function(){ $(this).parent().find('img:first').stop().animate({opacity:1}, 200); }) $('.img_grayscale').mouseover(function(){ $(this).stop().animate({opacity:0}, 200); }); }); // Grayscale w canvas method function grayscale(src){ var canvas = document.createElement('canvas'); var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'); var imgObj = new Image(); imgObj.src = src; canvas.width = imgObj.width; canvas.height = imgObj.height; ctx.drawImage(imgObj, 0, 0); var imgPixels = ctx.getImageData(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height); for(var y = 0; y < imgPixels.height; y++){ for(var x = 0; x < imgPixels.width; x++){ var i = (y * 4) * imgPixels.width + x * 4; var avg = (imgPixels.data[i] + imgPixels.data[i + 1] + imgPixels.data[i + 2]) / 3; imgPixels.data[i] = avg; imgPixels.data[i + 1] = avg; imgPixels.data[i + 2] = avg; } } ctx.putImageData(imgPixels, 0, 0, 0, 0, imgPixels.width, imgPixels.height); return canvas.toDataURL(); } </script>