Time Machine: Restore specific photos to MacBook

The way to do it is to archive your existing Photos Library and then restore the TM backup of the entire Library. Or (conversely) restore the TM backup to a different location.

When launching Photos, hold an option key to select the Library you wish to use for that session.

At one time the iPhoto app (the predecessor of Photos) was "Time Machine aware" so to speak. We could go "back in time" to restore individual photos. Sadly we can no longer do that.

“Time Machine: Restore specific photos to MacBook: Can I restore a Time Machine back up on my Macbook to find an old photo that I think is gone from the cloud. I don't want to restore it on my Mac because I don't want to disturb everything currently on my Mac.[…].“

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Recovering iCloud-Stored Photos Elesewhere:

Being a file, this might be on iCloud Drive, and not necessarily iCloud Photos. So, you can dig through it on https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive.

But I would recommend exporting all of iCloud Drive to an external hard drive, for the sake of having a backup, and then use Finder to locate this file: Getting a Quick and Direct "iCloud Drive-to-External Hard Drive" Download - User Tip

“Time Machine: Restore specific photos to MacBook: […]I don't want to restore it on my Mac because I don't want to disturb everything currently on my Mac.[…]”

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Keeping your Mac how it is from Here:

Back Up your Mac:

When’s the last time you create a Time Machine Backup of your Mac? Create one from here. In doing so, you can have something restore your Mac from, from then on out. Consider doing the same before making any major changes to it, such as an update install to recovering data(which is the case here).