A method for computing the approximate photocount statistics for Gaussian light is presented. This method may be used for the superposition of coherent radiation with chaotic radiation of arbitrary spectral shape. Data is presented for Gaussian‐, triangular‐, and square‐shaped spectra as well as for Lorentzian‐shaped spectra. The results show that the photocount statistics are significantly dependent upon spectral shape for intermediate time‐bandwidth products. The results also show that the Bedard, Chang, and Mandel approximation gives a better fit to a Gaussian‐shaped spectrum then to a Lorentzian‐shaped spectrum. Significant differences between the photocount statistics for a time‐bandwidth product of 10 and Poisson statistics were also obtained; even for a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 40:1.