Photos deleted from iPad and iCloud- where did they go?

I recently realized that the photos on my iPad air and my iPhone were not saving to the iCloud. When I turned it on to start uploading them to the cloud, it deleted all my pictures and they are no where to be found in the iCloud either. What did I do wrong? A few random pictures have showed up but only a small handful. Also, a few screenshots I had taken and deleted (some were deleted as long as a year ago) are now in my photos as if I just took them. I read somewhere that someone who had the same problem just restored the last backup on their iPad and their pictures came back. At this point I was willing to try but it did not work for me. Are my photos just gone or is there a way to find them?