We study the surface brightness profiles of disc galaxies in the 3.6 μm images from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) and Ks-band images from the Near-Infrared S0-Sa galaxy Survey (NIRS0S).We particularly connect properties of single exponential (type I), downbending double exponential (type II), and upbending double exponential (type III) disc profile types, to structural components of galaxies by using detailed morphological classifications, and size measurements of rings and lenses. We also study how the local environment of the galaxies affects the profile types by calculating parameters describing the environmental density and the tidal interaction strength. We find that in majority of type II profiles the break radius is connected with structural components such as rings, lenses, and spirals. The exponential disc sections of all three profile types, when considered separately, follow the disc scaling relations. However, the outer discs of type II, and the inner discs of type III, are similar in scalelength to the single exponential discs. Although the different profile types have similar mean environmental parameters, the scalelengths of the type III profiles show a positive correlation with the tidal interaction strength. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.