iCloud Photos

Hello all...

Currently all my photos and videos are backed up to iCloud whereby all edits are performed via my iPhone or Mac Studio - photos/videos edited in the cloud.

I'm currently looking to migrate away from storing all my photos and videos via iCloud to a local workflow i.e. images will be saved on the iPhone and then offloaded to my Studio to be edited via photos or someother photo editing software. i.e. offloading images off a SLR camera via the memory card to your local computer etc.

My question:

Is there a way to upload only a selective set of photos/videos (edited locally on my Mac) to iCloud or this an all or nothing action - this is how iCloud works (apple wants everything stored in the cloud)?

Another example, in the past and on an older windows pc I leveraged Lightroom and then posted those modified pics to Flikr, can the same be done with iCloud?

Appreciate any feedback and thank you.