I have an iCloud account with about 800 photos stored in iCloud Photo Library. I’m trying to move them to a Mac and delete from iCloud in order to clear up space.

I tried to connect my Mac to iCloud Photo Library by going into the Photos app’s preferences; however it then asks me to upgrade to a paid iCloud storage tier because I have over 5GB worth of local images that Photos wants to sync to iCloud.

So I don't think using the Photos app is going to work for offloading pictures to a Mac.

I then logged in to the Photos app at iCloud.com. I was able to select and download individual images, but it won’t let me select more than one at a time, so I can’t download them all in bulk. Selecting the first image, holding down the <kbd>⇧ shift</kbd> key, then selecting the last image causes only the last image to be selected.

I could click on all 800 images while holding the <kbd>⌘ cmd</kbd> key, but that’s obviously very tedious.

What’s the most efficient way to download images from iCloud Photo Library to a Mac that can’t connect to iCloud Photo Library without upgrading to a paid plan?