How do I access photos stored using Time Machine on a back up disk from an old Mac without importing the whole library to my new mac?

I just bought a MacBook Air and don't want to store all my photos on it. I'd like to be able to store and access them on a separate back up disk but iPhoto won't allow me to access these saying:
"The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library."
Can I use my back up disk to store my photos? If not, how do I get my photos from iPhoto onto my back up disk?
Would love any help!
Thanks in advance :-)

You need to first restore the Time Machine back up. This  excuse a TM back up is condensed and fragmented and so it needs to be expanded and reassembled before iPhoto can understand it.
After that, moving the Library is simple:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

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