Using the PDS microdensitometer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, we
have acquired U, B, V, R and I surface photometry from UK Schmidt pho
tographic plates for all the galaxies with measured redshifts in the D
urham-AAT redshift survey. By comparison with CCD photometry we show t
hat such precision photographic photometry of galaxies off IIIa emulsi
ons is capable of an accuracy as good as a few hundredths of a magnitu
de. We discuss the colour-related properties of these galaxies, and de
rive luminosity functions in each waveband. We show that when divided
by colour, the faint-end slope of the luminosity function of the bluer
galaxies is significantly steeper than that for the redder ones.