Your plants are much more sensative to ambiant heat (the actual temperature of the air, in the immediate vacinity) than they are to radiant heat (the heat carried by the enrgy of the actual photons of light being radiated).
Radiant heat from the sun travels through the vacuum of space without even warming it up - but when it reaches us and hits the pavement in the street; the pavement becomes warm. As the pavement warms up, it releases heat into the "cooler" air; which makes the air "warmer" - this "Second Hand" heat is called ambiant heat.
Like NoDrama said, you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face, even if it's cold outside - that's radiant heat. The ambiant heat only rises as "things" get warmer during the day (from light radiation) and the air temperature stabilizes.
Anyway, the point is, don't worry too much about radiant heat - it's the ambiant heat you have to be careful of. That's why you place the sensor in the shade - to get the actual ambiant air temp! 85 or 90 degrees f., ambiant, is getting pretty warm! But 85 or 90 degrees f.,radiant, is just barely enough to make your hand feel warm. This is why we use both methods to keep the temperature under control - thermometer sensor (in the shade) for ambiant temps and "open hand" under the light for radiant temps! The radiant temperature can easily be 90 degrees f. (or higher) before it is hot enough to do damage to your plants or "feel too hot" on your hand.