We present the bivariate brightness distribution ( BBD ) for the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey ( 2dFGRS ) based on a preliminary subsample of 45,000 galaxies .
The BBD is an extension of the galaxy luminosity function incorporating surface brightness information .
It allows the measurement of the local luminosity density , j _ { B } , and the galaxy luminosity and surface brightness distributions while accounting for surface brightness selection biases .

The recovered 2dFGRS BBD shows a strong surface brightness-luminosity relation ( M _ { B } \propto ( 2.4 \pm ^ { 1.5 } _ { 0.5 } ) \mu _ { e } ) providing a new constraint for galaxy formation models .
In terms of the number-density we find that the peak of the galaxy population lies at M _ { B } \geq - 16.0 mag .
Within the well defined selection limits ( -24 < M _ { B } < -16.0 mag , 18.0 < \mu _ { e } < 24.5 mag arcsec ^ { -2 } ) the contribution towards the luminosity-density is dominated by conventional giant galaxies ( i.e .
90 % of the luminosity-density is contained within -22.5 < M < -17.5 , 18.0 < \mu _ { e } < 23.0 ) .
The luminosity-density peak lies away from the selection boundaries implying that the 2dFGRS is complete in terms of sampling the local luminosity-density and that luminous low surface brightness galaxies are rare .
The final value we derive for the local luminosity-density , inclusive of surface brightness corrections , is : j _ { B } = 2.49 \pm 0.20 \times 10 ^ { 8 } h _ { 100 } L _ { \odot } Mpc ^ { -3 } .
Representative Schechter function parameters are : M ^ { * } = -19.75 \pm 0.05 , \phi ^ { * } = 2.02 \pm 0.02 \times 10 ^ { -2 } and \alpha = -1.09 \pm 0.03 .
Finally we note that extending the conventional methodology to incorporate surface brightness selection effects has resulted in an increase in the luminosity-density of \sim 37 % .
Hence surface brightness selection effects would appear to explain much of the discrepancy between previous estimates of the local luminosity density .