Can I create a Photos library on iPhone and not have it upload to iCloud?

Just thinking, here:

There's only one Photos Library on an iPad or iPhone, and iCloud synchronizes the Photos Libraries on your iPad and at iCloud Photos-- it makes the Libraries exactly the same, with all the same pictures.

But there is another way to have pictures on an iPad or iPhone-- you can use the Files app to handle picture files. The Files app can hold picture files and folders that won't synchronize with iCloud.

Here's the "On My iPad" section of the Files app on my iPad. Inside, there are a number of folders

that were created by iPad apps to hold their documents. But I have just created a folder called Pics for some pictures.

In the Pics folder I have picture files,

and if I tap on the picture, it goes full screen and looks like a picture in Photos.

But there's no way (that I know of) to edit pictures in the Files app, or to use any of the power of Photos. But if you've gotten the pictures as you want them, then can they exist here and be viewed here.

You can save pictures to Files from Photos Then you can delete the pictures from the Photos app so they only exist in Files. Or you can import them from other apps using the Share menu.

Whether this works for you depends on what you want to do with the pictures, I guess.

iCloud sync is all or nothing. You cannot create a separate library on your phone.

If you do not sync with iCloud, you can manually sync your photos to your Mac using photos or to your PC using Apple Devices. You can share photos between devices by email, AirDrop, or other cloud service.

You can take pictures and then store in a folder on your device. But, the photo will still upload if iCloud Photos is enabled.

No. iCloud sync is all or nothing. Any new albums created in photos will sync using iCloud.