Lazyloading picture elements

Question

I'm looking for recommendations on how best to lazyload picture elements. I may like to use a small jQuery helper function to determine whether the picture is "on screen". But the lazy fetching of the srcset, I'm not sure right now how to do that. So, any ideas?

Here's an example of the picture elements I am working with. Thanks!

<picture alt="Random Celebrities" data-src="http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_478,w_478/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg">
    <!--[if IE 9]><video style="display: none;"><![endif]-->
    <source class='picture-source-1260' srcset='http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_239,w_239/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg, http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_478,w_478/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg 2x' media='(min-width: 1260px)'>
    <source class='picture-source-960' srcset='http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_180,w_180/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg, http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_360,w_360/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg 2x' media='(min-width: 960px)'>
    <source class='picture-source-760' srcset='http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_150,w_150/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg, http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_300,w_300/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg 2x' media='(min-width: 760px)'>
    <source class='picture-source-450' srcset='http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_210,w_210/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg, http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_420,w_420/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg 2x' media='(min-width: 450px)'>
    <source class='picture-source-320' srcset='http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_160,w_160/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg, http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_320,w_320/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg 2x'>
    <!--[if IE 9]></video><![endif]-->
    <noscript>
        <img class="picture-img-noscript" src="http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_160,w_160/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg" alt="Random Celebrities" />
    </noscript>
    <img class="picture-img" srcset="http://www.example.com/r/c_1,h_160,w_160/2015/03/19/random-celebrities-08-560x560.jpg" alt="Random Celebrities" />
</picture>

Answer 1

Use lazysizes, it is a high performance lazyloader for normal and responsive images (including the picture element).

Answer 2

I've created a pen with a solution here:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/54092875/5858395

codepen

Tested in Chrome & Firefox, Safari and IE11 (fallbacks for the latter)

<!-- Load images above the fold normally -->
<picture>
  <source srcset="img/city-m.jpg" media="(max-width: 960px)">
  <source srcset="img/city-l.jpg" media="(min-width: 961px)">
  <img class="fade-in" src="img/city-l.jpg" alt="city"/>
</picture>

<picture>
  <source srcset="img/forest-m.jpg" media="(max-width: 960px)">
  <source srcset="img/forest-l.jpg" media="(min-width: 961px)">
  <img class="fade-in" src="img/forest-l.jpg" alt="forest"/>
</picture>

<!-- Lazy load images below the fold -->
<picture class="lazy">
  <source data-srcset="img/river-m.jpg" media="(max-width: 960px)">
  <source data-srcset="img/river-l.jpg" media="(min-width: 961px)">
  <img data-srcset="img/river-l.jpg" alt="river"/>
</picture>

<picture class="lazy">
  <source data-srcset="img/desert-m.jpg" media="(max-width: 960px)">
  <source data-srcset="img/desert-l.jpg" media="(min-width: 961px)">
  <img data-srcset="img/desert-l.jpg" alt="desert"/>
</picture>

And the JS:

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {
   var lazyImages =[].slice.call(
    document.querySelectorAll(".lazy > source")
   )

   if ("IntersectionObserver" in window) {
      let lazyImageObserver = 
       new IntersectionObserver(function(entries, observer) {
          entries.forEach(function(entry) {
           if (entry.isIntersecting) {      
              let lazyImage = entry.target;
              lazyImage.srcset = lazyImage.dataset.srcset;
              lazyImage.nextElementSibling.srcset = lazyImage.dataset.srcset;
              lazyImage.nextElementSibling.classList.add('fade-in');
              lazyImage.parentElement.classList.remove("lazy");
             lazyImageObserver.unobserve(lazyImage);
            }
         });
        });

      lazyImages.forEach(function(lazyImage) {
       lazyImageObserver.observe(lazyImage);
      });
   } else {
     // Not supported, load all images immediately
    lazyImages.forEach(function(image){
        image.nextElementSibling.src = image.nextElementSibling.dataset.srcset;
      });
    }
  });