How to set the opacity/alpha of a UIImage?

I just needed to do this, but thought Steven's solution would be slow. This should hopefully use graphics HW. Create a category on UIImage:

- (UIImage *)imageByApplyingAlpha:(CGFloat) alpha {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.size, NO, 0.0f);

    CGContextRef ctx = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    CGRect area = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.size.width, self.size.height);

    CGContextScaleCTM(ctx, 1, -1);
    CGContextTranslateCTM(ctx, 0, -area.size.height);

    CGContextSetBlendMode(ctx, kCGBlendModeMultiply);

    CGContextSetAlpha(ctx, alpha);

    CGContextDrawImage(ctx, area, self.CGImage);

    UIImage *newImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();

    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    return newImage;
}

Set the opacity of its view it is showed in.

UIImageView *imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageWithName:@"SomeName.png"]];
imageView.alpha = 0.5; //Alpha runs from 0.0 to 1.0

Use this in an animation. You can change the alpha in an animation for an duration.

[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:1.0];
//Set alpha
[UIView commitAnimations];