How do I get photos from iCloud onto my Mac?

You have two ways:

If you want to have the photos in a Photos Library, launch Photos and enable iCloud Photos in Photos > Preferences > iCloud. The Photos will sync your currently open Photos Library with iCloud Photos and download the photos from iCloud. However, it will first upload all photos from the selected Photos Library. If you do not want additional photos in iCloud, open a new, empty Photos Library before you enable iCloud Photos. (

Create additional libraries) Only one library can sync with iCloud.

• Or view your iCloud Photos Library in a web browser. Go to www.icloud.com, sign in with your iCloud AppleID, launch the Photos.app at www.icloud.com. Then select Photos and click the download link.When you hover the pointer over the download link, you will see a disclosure arrow"v", that will open a menu where you can select, if you want to to download the deed versions or the full resolution original files.