Like this?
Live Demo
Relevant CSS:
#container:hover .inner {
opacity: 0.8
}
HTML:
<div id="container">
<div id="left" class="inner"></div>
<div id="right" class="inner"></div>
</div>
Irrelevant CSS:
#container {
width: 300px;
padding: 30px;
overflow: hidden
}
.inner {
width: 40%;
height: 250px;
background: #ccc
}
#left {
float: left
}
#right {
float: right
}
Truly Irrelevant CSS:
#container {
background: #fcecfc; /* old browsers */
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #fcecfc 0%, #fba6e1 50%, #fd89d7 51%, #ff7cd8 100%); /* firefox */
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#fcecfc), color-stop(50%,#fba6e1), color-stop(51%,#fd89d7), color-stop(100%,#ff7cd8)); /* webkit */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr="#fcecfc", endColorstr="#ff7cd8",GradientType=0 ); /* ie */
}