I would select them with a querySelectorAll and loop over them.
function changeOpacity(className) {
var elems = document.querySelectorAll(className);
var index = 0, length = elems.length;
for ( ; index < length; index++) {
elems[index].style.transition = "opacity 0.5s linear 0s";
elems[index].style.opacity = 0.5;
}
}
Edit: As a comment said you might be better off putting styling values in a CSS class if they are not dynamic and use:
elems[index].classList.add('someclass');