The authors of the paper deal with measurement of heat and mass transfer for several years and they have frequently used few techniqes for measurement of refractive index distribution based on holographic interferometry. Some of the well known techniques have been modified some and some new ones developped. Every technique could be applied with success in different type of meassurement and obviously every one has set of properties making them unique. We decided to digest few different basic techniques and describe its properties in this paper with the aim to help the reader select the proper one for their measurement. The list of techniques and its properties is not comprehensive but schould serve as a basic orientation in the field.