Right, Ill be really, really polite...
Youve ruined both shots with the * white background, its seriously overlit, especially on the shot of you.
Lets start with the bag. The first thing to do with any shot of any subject is to decide what you actually want to photograph what the benefits of the subject are, how it should be portrayed, how much to show, and then finally how best to light it.
The benefits, presumably, are that it straps to your back and has lots of pockets and things, so I would have done the straps up, taken a much closer shot and would have eliminated as much as possible of the coat stand. Its just a coat stand. And I would have held the camera straight.
Then I would have lit it with one fairly hard light, from the left (facing) side, with the light skimming across the front. This would have revealed the texture, shown the pockets and zips clearly and given it a bit of a shine too. The light needs to be fairly distant, so that the fall off of light across the width is gradual. At this point, it looks like a really expensive bag.
The background isnt too bad on this one, but it is overexposed though and the overexposure has lowered the contrast and spilled light where it isnt wanted. If the background really needs to be white, then it should be lit (on this shot) evenly but at a much lower level, so that the flare disappears and the background shows as a very light grey. Then, in PS, go to image>adjustments>selective color>white and move the black slider to make the background white. This will also make the makers name whiter and brighter.
Moving to the shot of you, let me say straight away that although its not the most flattering shot in the world, its also virtually impossible to light a self portrait well, so my comments are really on what you could have done if you had been photographing someone else...
The first problem is the chavground. It is seriously overlit, so much so that light is spilling onto the left side of your face and arms and the edges of even your dark hair have been destroyed. That overexposure has also created flare, destroying contrast.
Then theres the light. Its flat and horrible. Even worse, its whats known as broad lighting, it lights the whole of the right side of your face, which makes you look... broad. Maybe thats what you want, but if I was taking a shot of someone of your build I would have used short lighting, i.e. light that hits only the short, or less visible, side of the face. My single light would be off to camera right with only the left side of the face (the short side) lit. This would leave the right side of the face in shadow. If that shadow turns out to be too strong then a simple reflector will fill in the shadow as much as necessary. The result? You would lose at least 4 stone...
An alternative would be a single light directly in front of where you are facing and high. This would again create shadow, your neck, ear and part of your beard would be in shadow, again this would be far more flattering.
Lighting isnt about flooding the subject with light, its about lighting the bits we want to emphasise and creating shadow where shadows flatter, and where we dont want the eye to dwell upon.
