Can I free up space after I back up using time machine?

Time machine is NOT an Archiver.

When you remove items from your Mac, they eventually will be discarded from your Time machine backup set.

You can move your Photo Library to an external drive to have lots more room. Time machine will continue to back up every Mac drive connected to your computer, internal and external.

Optimize storage space on your Mac

macOS can help make more room on your Mac by optimizing its storage. When space is needed, it keeps files, photos and videos, Apple TV movies and shows, and email attachments in iCloud and makes them available on demand. 

from:

Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

Optimized storage does not actually remove these files from your Mac. The files are sort of half-removed from your Mac, but behave as if they were still there, because they will be re-downloaded when you need them.

If you really need more storage space, the best way to get it is to attach an additional drive, and move entire classes of files to the additional drive. A prime candidate for this is to offload your Photos Library to an external drive.

I have 2 TB of iCloud every single photo from every single Apple product that I have should be going to iCloud is that not correct? And if it isn't it better be made so because that's what it states so the question is why are our photos still in our MacBook Pro memory and not being held in the cloud like they're supposed To be?

I need help with a solution please help me and this other person and others with this problem thank you so much