Applying normal map - Dark on one side I try to apply a baked normal map. I use 'blender render', load the obj mesh, create a material (default option), then load a normal map as texture (linked to this material) and in the 'influence tab' I uncheck 'color' and check 'normal', while in the 'image sampling' tab I check 'normal map' and choose tangent in the drop-down menu.

I render with a camera and a few lights and initially the result looks great when the camera is on one side. However when I position the camera to look at the other side, rendering is completely dark. The normals however look perfectly fine. Very few seem to be pointing inwards, but this is not the case as at the webbing between the fingers some normals penetrate the opposite triangle during visualization. However just for the sake of it I recalculated the normals and the problem still remains.

Any idea why this may be happening?

I attach below a few screenshots to better showcase what I describe above.
It appears that you have sun lamps and they are pointing downwards. So even though physically one or two are below the object they are only emitting light "down" so the bottom of your object is in shadow.