Science Question - Golden Hour

If I shoot an hour before the golden hour, my pictures are very bland.

At the golden hour, they're not. The light on the model doesn't look flat/bland, even when she's in the shade. And it's not mainly a color temperature issue.

Why does the golden hour work so well?


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Rambling, feel free to skip:

I don't know why, but what it looks like to me is that the scene around my model is much brighter than she is. To expose her correctly, I end up with massive lens flare.
Is that true? If so, why does the sun being lower change this? Everything should get darker, including her - leaving me with the same problem. So, I assume my assumption is incorrect .

https://en.m.wikipedia​.org …ngle_of_inciden​ce_(optics)

And its reflective ambient light.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18588188
https://en.m.wikipedia​.org …ngle_of_inciden​ce_(optics)

And its reflective ambient light.

So, it's basically because at the golden hour - we get total internal reflection, which would reduce the EV range of our environment (and thus, my rambling was basically correct)?
Do I have it right?

Overhead sun comes through less atmosphere than sun light at an angle.

When it hits the earth and other stuff, it reflects back up into space, mostly.

On the other hand,

Light coming through more atmosphere is scattered before it even hits the earth.

It's low angle, plus the fact that it is already being bounced around, reflects light off adjacent objects not just back up into the atmosphere.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18588249
Overhead sun comes through less atmosphere than sun light at an angle.

When it hits the earth and other stuff, it reflects back up into space, mostly.

On the other hand,

Light coming through more atmosphere is scattered before it even hits the earth.

It's low angle, plus the fact that it is already being bounced around, reflects light off adjacent objects not just back up into the atmosphere.

Thanks, mate!