I'm so completely lost by iCloud Photo Sharing - Help?

[OrlandoTragic]

Hi all - I'm so confused. I have a pretty large Photo Library on my Mac, (~30GBish). I pay for the $0.99 a month iCloud Plan, which gives me 50GB.

I recently decided to enable iCloud Photo Library on my iPhone, with the main goal being to make sure all of the photos I take on my phone are backed up on iCloud.

Here's my issue - I figured I would enable iCloud Photo Library then on my Mac, but I'm being told that my storage plan isn't enough?????? (I am being told that I need another 14GB, and am being prompted to upgrade to the 200GB/month plan). I was under the assumption that the only thing being added to my Photo Library on my Mac would be the photos coming off my phone (~8GB).

Why? Is this really that confusing or am I just missing something?

 

[bigmikeyp]

Your thinking is correct, in that it would take your Mac photo library (already in iCloud) and add your iPhone photos to that too.

I would assume that in your photo library (likely on iPhone) are videos too. Which do also get added to your iCloud Photo Library

 

[M. Gustave]

I was under the assumption that the only thing being added to my Photo Library on my Mac would be the photos coming off my phone (~8GB).

Nope. It will merge all your photos into one library. That's why it's complaining about storage space. Maybe your guess of the totals is off, or you have videos, as the other reply suggested.