'painful light' is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use the phrase to refer to any source of light that is unpleasant to look at, either because it is too bright or because it is especially harsh-looking. For example, "I had to squint against the painful light of the sun reflecting off the snow."
His hard-won knowledge sheds an unexpected and painful light on the world he portrayed.
Rather, it presents the Papin sisters' lives with ferocious clarity, shedding a painful light on emotions too volatile to be named and on actions that ultimately defy explanation.
Mr. Smith's case, unlike the others, was said to involve criminality, but some city Republicans conceded on Tuesday that the episode still cast a painful light on the way their party operates.
In other countries, those caught spying for Russia tend to be eased out discreetly rather than being brought to justice in the painful light of day.Correction: the original version of this article identified the man in the photograph as Valery Zentsov.
Dynamic mechanical allodynia is pain produced by normally non-painful light-pressure moving stimuli on skin [1].
Its dominance seems especially painful in light of the worthy composers doing terrific original work now.
We all brace ourselves before we walk into any unknown senior center, emotionally preparing for the painful fluorescent light, the people dozing, heads tilting, in those overheated rooms.
In her full-face portrait of Carlyle, taken soon after the death of his wife, he gazes out with painful intensity, light raking across half his face so that he seems about to sink into a deep shadow of grief.
Choosing the winner of festival's top gong, which went to Japanese indie filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, was "painful" in light of the strong competition, said Blanchett.
It is particularly painful in light of Thatcher's declining health due to multiple mini strokes.
I opened those little peepers a few moments later to realize that WTF, that painful white light shining into my face was a spotlight!
