  The determination of photospheric abundances in late-type stars from
spectroscopic observations is a well-established field, built on solid
theoretical foundations. Improving those foundations to refine the accuracy of
the inferred abundances has proven challenging, but progress has been made. In
parallel, developments on instrumentation, chiefly regarding multi-object
spectroscopy, have been spectacular, and a number of projects are collecting
large numbers of observations for stars across the Milky Way and nearby
galaxies, promising important advances in our understanding of galaxy formation
and evolution. After providing a brief description of the basic physics and
input data involved in the analysis of stellar spectra, a review is made of the
analysis steps, and the available tools to cope with large observational
efforts. The paper closes with a quick overview of relevant ongoing and planned
spectroscopic surveys, and highlights of recent research on photospheric
abundances.
