Downloading full resolution pictures from another phone when phone set to optimize storage

By plugging his phone into my Mac and importing pictures.

Then I believe no.

I would expect the Mac will detect the optimized photos and ask you to sign in to his iCloud and want to sync them between the Mac's local Photos library and his iCloud as the full sized photos don't exist on the phone.

Is there a different way I can get the full size images from his phone then instead of importing into my photo library the way I described?

Not without his involvement. You could sign into iCloud using his Apple ID and download full sized versions from there.

See >>> https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204055#photos

Hello. My husband's iphone is set to optimize storage. If I download his pictures into my photo library, is the full resolution picture going to be downloaded or the optimized smaller version?

How are you planning to do this?

ok thank you. So how do families manage getting full size photos from other phones in their families? The icloud web way seems cumbersome

I have no idea. Shared albums offer convenience but are downsized and have storage limits.

Wanting access to an entire library of full sized photos from another user is not part of Apple's design.

Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/