I took the following photographs of sunset at beach. I know that photographing sun could damage the camera or even eyes, but the intensity of the sun light at the time I captured it was so weak that I could directly look at the sun and somehow knew it wont be harmful. So my question is: How can we tell if the intensity of the light is low enough so that we can directly point the camera at sun?
I do recall my cameras warning against using live view for something like that. Normal SLR mechanics will expose the sensor briefly and let it rest between shots. If it's not overexposed and blown out, it's being used in the expected manner and within the sensor's capability.
The invisible IR and UV could be over-intense without your knowing. For sunset spesifically those will be low. But for snow-blindness worries the formerly ubiquitous UV filter could help.
