  We review some quantum-phase descriptions of optical fields. We focus on real
fields that can be generated in practice in various nonlinear optical
processes. Thus, we rather avoid discussions of phase formalisms as such and
try to exploit their practical applicability in the description of optical
fields. In the description of the phase properties we use two different, though
related formalisms: the Pegg-Barnett Hermitian phase formalism and the
formalism based on $s$-parametrized phase distributions.
