  Several models which have been constructed to explain the faint galaxy excess
in observed number counts are used to predict the intensity of the
extragalactic background light (EBL). Special attention is given to irregular
and dwarf galaxies, which seem to be more common in the universe than once
thought, and to low surface brightness galaxies (LSB), which can in principle
be altogether missed from galaxy counts. The nature of the latter objects is
still unclear, but some plausible models predict that LSB galaxies can increase
the intensity of the EBL by a factor of up to 5 from a standard, no-evolution
model in the optical and near infrared and by an order of magnitude in the UV.
If the faint excess population consists of low-luminosity dwarfs, whose
luminosity function has a steep faint end, the EBL can well increase by a
factor of 3 to 5, while still being consistent with current number count data.
The resulting values of the EBL are not far from the observed upper limits. In
the future the overall level of the EBL and its spectral distribution could be
used to differentiate between galaxy population models.
