Can I delete photos off my iPhone To free up capacity but keep the on iCloud and my iPad ?

BuckeyeHam wrote:

Thank you. This answers the question for most of us based on the original question. I, like many apparently, signed up for icloud as an archival service. Are we saying ultimately that Mac doesn't have an archival service of any kind?

Thanks

Apple does not offer an archival service. What they offer is a syncing service. It is 100% consistent, and is clearly described in the manual. Anything that is saved to iCloud is synced to iCloud and to every device logged in to the same iCloud account. Editing or deleting from any device is replicated on all devices logged in to iCloud. The operation is exactly the same for calendars, notes, contacts, reminders, Safari preferences and bookmarks, news settings, health data, keychain - and photos. You should not expect photos to be the sole exception to this design.

Here's some really good advice on photo archiving: A Beginner’s Guide to Backing Up Photos - The New York Times