[html] CSS image overlay with color and transparency

I am trying to figure out if I can add an overlay to an image like a tint and change the opacity without adding background color. I had no luck so I thought I would ask here.
I would like to make it red with that opacity. here is what I have so far.

I made an image to overlay it if I have to called overlay.png but don't know if its necessary.

img.highlighted {
   opacity:0.4;
}

Basically I want to do this but reverse, for image to tint when hovered not to take the tint away when hovered.
check it out here
http://jsbin.com/igahay/3011/edit

If you want to make the reverse of what you showed consider doing this:

.tint:hover:before {
    background: rgba(0,0,250, 0.5);

  }

  .t2:before {
    background: none;
  }

and look at the effect on the 2nd picture.

Is it supposed to look like this?

Have you given a try to Webkit Filters?

You can manipulate not only opacity, but colour, brightness, luminosity and other properties:

JSFiddle Demo

HTML:

<div class="image-holder">
    <img src="http://codemancers.com/img/who-we-are-bg.png" />
</div>

CSS:

.image-holder {
    display:inline-block;
    position: relative;
}
.image-holder:after {
    content:'';
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    z-index: 10;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    display: block;
    position: absolute;
    background: blue;
    opacity: 0.1;
}
.image-holder:hover:after {
    opacity: 0;
}

something like this? http://codepen.io/Nunotmp/pen/wKjvB

You can add an empty div and use absolute positioning.