Deleting photos from iPhone

What you're doing will both not help at all with your goal (as your photos are cached locally, but are not stored locally), and will delete the photo everywhere.

iCloud is where your photos are stored, if that is enabled. All of your devices have copies of your photos cached, but don't necessarily have your entire photo library downloaded. Use of iCloud for photos does mean that deleting any photo locally also deletes it everywhere, including deleting the photo stored in iCloud. When the Optimize Storage setting is selected for photo storage, iOS should offload photos for you (with a copy kept in iCloud), so you should not need nor want to clean up your photos locally. Unless you really want to delete the photo everywhere.

Some links to visit for more info on this topic:

Delete photos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support (including optimizing storage)

The alternative here is an iPhone with storage commensurate for your usage. Storage that is too constrained for your current and future needs means you'll be spending more of your time managing what's on your iPhone now, and what needs to be on your iPhone for what you're planning to do next. Too little storage means more work, unfortunately. Only option to increase storage is a replacement iPhone with more storage, so far from the cheapest approach. Unfortunately, too many folks under-purchase.

Beckers_61 Said:

"Deleting photos from iPhone: I get a message that says the photo will be deleted on all devices and iCloud. I just want to clean up space on my phone."

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How to Clean Space:

Consider performing the following.

A. Clean TV and Music Libraries:

Remove all unneeded files from your TV and Music Libraries. Full-Movies take up 2-4GB typically, and a bunch of those would take up a load of storage, ideally. So, if you have any movies that are not needed, then delete them.

Also..

B. Clear Temporary Internet Files:

Clear your Temporary Internet Files(Cookies & Cache) of Safari:

• Cookies perform remembrance of certain site-entered data.
• Cache keeps a snapshot of the last time you visited a site.
• Go Here: Clear the History and Cookies from Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch - Apple Support

C. Clear "Other":

Clear the storage named "Other". It basically contains unnecessary files such as caches that are used for system ease of use - all of which gather over time: How to Clear "Other" in your iPhone's Storage - Use Backup - User Tips