Photos app for OS X allows you to keep local copies of all your original photos and videos with an external hard drive. Like iPhoto, your Photos app for OS X library can easily run off an external hard drive. To do so, make sure that you have quit "Photos" app for OS X. Move your existing "Photos" library to an external hard drive from your user folder's "Picture" section. Option-click on "Photos" app to launch it and select your "Photos" library from the external hard drive. You can not create a second "Photos" library which has iCloud Photo Library enabled on your Mac computer.
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