how do i get my pictures from laptop to icloud

Hope this answers your question; it's from the iTunes Help Menu:

To add photos to your iPod, iPhone, or iPad:

1. Connect your iPod, iPhone, or iPad to your computer.
2. When your device appears in the iTunes window (below Devices), select it and click the Photos button.
3. Select “Sync photos from” and choose an album or folder from the pop-up menu.
4. Choose whether to move all your photos, albums, Events, and Faces, or only selections. If you choose “Selected albums, Events, and Faces,” select the albums, Events, and Faces you want to add to your device.iPhoto 8.1 or later, or Aperture 3.0.1 or later, is required to select photos using Faces and Events. Some earlier versions of iPhoto also support Events.To sync videos from iPhoto 6.0.6 or later, select “Include videos.”
5. To also move the full-resolution versions of these photos to your iPod, select “Include full-resolution photos.”Note: You should select this option if you plan to move the photos from your iPod to another computer. This option isn’t available on iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad.
6. Click Apply.

Use Photo Stream.