I met my subject’s parents very early one morning and we had her jump in the pool. Afterall, all kids love getting up super early to get an incredible morning golden hour light. Unless I made it up, which I did. These photos were taken in the afternoon and not only that they were taken on a cloudy day.
The golden light is just a strobe with a gel on and cranked up to spread golden light everywhere. You can even see the set up with the one without the light. There are two tripods because I was switching out the between the medium sized one and the small sized one for various shots. Anyway, a good strobe with a good gel can fake a golden hour. Granted, you probably don’t want one so cranked up as this one for more realistic shots, but it is definitely a good crutch if you can’t get the golden hour you want – you just have to understand how to make it happen with the gear you have. Different strobes and speedlights will manage this sort of goal to different degrees and you will have to work within those limits to make what you want to have happen, happen.
But that’s just photography, and art for that matter, in general; figuring out how to make what you want with what you got.