We do it every day. When you read a letter from a friend at your desk, the paper is comfortable and easy to read because the light is being reflected off of it. On the other hand, the light that produces the words you're reading right now is transmitted light. It comes straight from the source into your eyes, so that very little of it is lost. If you look directly at a light bulb, you usually have to shade your eyes because it's too bright, just as you should never look directly into the sun.
Astronomers use the difference between transmitted and reflected light to observe sunspots.
This is a very safe way to look at the sun. So let's put this all together and see what we get. Below is an example of what I'm talking about. Both tables contain identical data. All that's changed is the background color.