Apple made changes to iCloud.com and made it easier to download iCloud photos in bulk. Redditor u/BruteSentiment discovered the change.
[Photos: How to Import to a Specific Album]
Bulk Management
Instead of clicking each photo one-by-one, you can now hold down the shift key and click photos to select multiple ones at a time. However, there is a caveat. Photo quality is reduced if you download photos individually. But if you download in bulk, photos and videos will remain the original size.
![icloud photos on macbook](https://www.macobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/icloud-photos-bulk-downloads.png)
Your photos and videos will be downloaded in a zip file. Additionally, Live Photos will be download a zip file with a JPEG and .MOV file.
Too bad this isn’t made clear by apple. The discussion came up here. https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/atlxnh/psa_about_downloading_from_icloud_photos_it/
Thanks! I added a link to that thread in the article.