help - dark photos

some sites are blocked, cannot post samples except for the tiny avatars.

If you look at the exif in your image, does it say "custom white balance"? My suspicion is you're not setting CWB correctly.

Dave

Well, but if he is setting custom white balanced based on a picture taken with ambient light and then taking one with strobes, that could be causing the problem as well.

In any case, the problem is definitely white balance and easily adjusted when developing the RAW image in software of your choice.

thanks for the help - will reshoot tonight

Stop shooting jpeg...if you have Photoshop, you have Bridge, learn how to adjust/set your white balance there.
The various combinations and shooting scenarios of jpeg confuse the hell out of me...easier to fix in bridge/RAW.