  A diffuse component of intra-group light can be observed in compact groups of
galaxies. This component is presumably due to stellar material tidally stripped
from the member galaxies of the group, which gets trapped in the group
potential. It represents an efficient tool for the determination of the stage
of dynamical evolution of such structures and for mapping the gravitational
potential of the group. Detecting this kind of low surface brightness structure
(about 1% above the sky level) is a difficult task, which is subject to many
problems like the modeling of stars and galaxy and sky subtraction. To overcome
these problems, we apply a new method, the wavelet technique OV\_WAV, with
which these low surface brightness structures can be revealed and analyzed by
separating different components according to their spatial characteristic sizes
(allowing the study of the point sources, galaxies and diffuse envelope
separately). We have analyzed 3 of the of the Hickson Compact Groups Catalogue
(HCG 79, HCG 88 and HCG 95) and were able to detect this diffuse component in
two of the studied groups: HCG 79, where the diffuse light corresponds to
$46\pm11%$ of the total B band luminosity and HCG 95, where the fraction is
$11\pm26%$. HCG 88 had no component detected, as expected by its estimated
early evolutionary stage.
