It is easy to download or backup photos from iCloud to your Mac machine. All you need is a computer and access to the internet. To backup iCloud photos onto your Mac, locally, here's how you go about it:
- Open a web browser and go to iCloud.com and login with your Apple ID as usual
- Click on the “Photos” icon once you are logged in to the iCloud website
- Click to select a photo you want to download
- When the picture is loaded on screen, look in the upper right corner of the web browser window for a little download icon, it looks like a cloud with an arrow coming out of the bottom of it – click that to download the photo from iCloud to the computer
- Repeat as necessary for other photos you wish to download from iCloud
And there you have it, look where your web browser defaults to downloading pictures and you’ll find your photo (or photos) in their original resolution there, this is typically the user Downloads folder.