Optical photometry of galaxies

The present status of the optical and near-infrared photometry of galaxies is reviewed. Part I introduces to the goals and general methods of both photographic surface photometry and integrated multicolor aperture photoelectric photometry for extended stellar systems, with a summary of the necessary corrections to the observed magnitudes and colors. Part II (surface photometry) summarizes recent results on the empirical luminosity laws for spheroidal systems and the separation of components in disk-plus-bulge systems. Part III (color problems) discusses integrated color effects (color and gas content, color-absolute magnitude relation for early-type systems, colors of interacting galaxies) and color gradient across spheroidal and disk galaxies. In part IV are summarized some constraints on the luminosity function of the stellar population in spheroidal systems given by narrow-band photometry