Stellar mass of galaxies Given the magnitudes (in the i-band) of certain galaxies, I would like to calculate their stellar mass (in terms of solar masses). So far, I have calculated their absolute magnitudes and gotten to working out the mass-light ratio $M/L$ for each galaxy.

e.g. $M/L=0.563$

Values I have are the calculated $M/L$ for each galaxy, and the $i$-band apparent ($13.25$) and absolute ($-18.06$) magnitudes for the galaxy, as well as the distance ($18.44Mpc$).

From this I need to get the mass of the galaxy $M$ in terms of solar masses. Therefore I assume I first need to calculate the i-band luminosity for the galaxy in solar masses $L_i$. This is where I am stuck. 

However, once I have $L_i$  next step would be ...
$$M_g = 0.563 * L_i$$

Ultimately, given these values, how would I go about estimating the stellar mass of a galaxy in terms of solar masses?
The relation between absolute magnitude $M$ and luminosity $L$ for stars
$$\frac{L_{Star}}{L_{Sun}}=10^{(M_{Sun}-M_{Star})/2.5}$$
should also be appliable to i-band luminosities of galaxies.

Taking the absolute magnitude 4.08 of the sun on the I-band the luminosity of a galaxy with absolute magnitude −18.06 would be
$$\frac{L_{Galaxy}}{L_{Sun}}=10^{(4.08−(-18.06))/2.5}=0.7178\cdot 10^9.$$
An order of magnitude estimate for the mass of the galaxy would be
$0.563\cdot 0.7178\cdot 10^9=0.404\cdot 10^9$ solar masses.

But $M/L$ isn't necessarily biased the same way for the sun to $M_i/L_i$ as for the galaxy.
Therefore you'll probably need to compare the spectrum of the sun with the spectrum of the galaxy to find out the ratios of the i-band fraction of the total emission. Absorption and extinction at different wavelength may be different, therefore determining kind of mean temperature of stars in the galaxy could help finding a more realistic estimate for the stellar mass.

A similiar approach has been used in this paper.