How to Lazy Load div background images

First you need to think off when you want to swap. For example you could switch everytime when its a div tag thats loaded. In my example i just used a extra data field "background" and whenever its set the image is applied as a background image.

Then you just have to load the Data with the created image tag. And not overwrite the img tag instead apply a css background image.

Here is a example of the code change:

if (settings.appear) {
    var elements_left = elements.length;
    settings.appear.call(self, elements_left, settings);
}
var loadImgUri;
if($self.data("background"))
    loadImgUri = $self.data("background");
else
    loadImgUri  = $self.data(settings.data_attribute);

$("<img />")
    .bind("load", function() {
        $self
            .hide();
        if($self.data("background")){
            $self.css('backgroundImage', 'url('+$self.data("background")+')');
        }else
            $self.attr("src", $self.data(settings.data_attribute))

        $self[settings.effect](settings.effect_speed);

        self.loaded = true;

        /* Remove image from array so it is not looped next time. */
        var temp = $.grep(elements, function(element) {
            return !element.loaded;
        });
        elements = $(temp);

        if (settings.load) {
            var elements_left = elements.length;
            settings.load.call(self, elements_left, settings);
        }
    })
    .attr("src", loadImgUri );
}

the loading stays the same

$("#divToLoad").lazyload();

and in this example you need to modify the html code like this:

<div data-background="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9712/orionfull_jcc_big.jpg" id="divToLoad" />​

but it would also work if you change the switch to div tags and then you you could work with the "data-original" attribute.

Here's an fiddle example: http://jsfiddle.net/dtm3k/1/