The difference between the photos app and iCloud

[Riderzzz]

I uploaded my photos/video (80 GB) library last week and everything is available on iPad iPhone and Mac.
Those photos came from different cameras, including my nikon camera.
What I am trying to understand is how to reach the originals who are uploaded to the cloud.
My mac settings are to download all originals to the mac. but when i drag a photo to the desktop for example (in the Photos app) my photo goes from original 8 Mb to approx. 2 Mb.
If i now log on to iCloud with safari and go to the same photo and download it to my mac its the original 8 Mb.

How do i reach photos in original size/resolution from the photos app?

 

[kylemc]

Just dragging the photo to the desktop will default to a compressed jpeg. To get the original file select your photo and File->Export->Export Unmodified Original.

 

[Riderzzz]

Funny part is that i tried this and i got even more confused.
I'll try it with 1 example:

I upload a jpeg, 8MB from my nikon camera to the iCloud through the photos app.
Now i have this situation:

downloading directly from iCloud: 8MB jpeg (=original)
Dragging from photos app to desktop: 2MB
exporting (unmodified) through the photos app with max settings: 10 MB
exporting with High settings (unmodified) through photos app: 2MB

I don't get that whatever i do in the photos app, i can't get it to hit the original size. It just need to change it.
Isn't there a way to download the file, unmodified, just the same file, same quality, untouched....

Thanks for the help btw!