Downloading photos from iCloud Photo Library

Question

Apple removed the iDevice iPhoto app and Camera Roll  ability to send photos to iTunes for transfer to my iMac, my iMac is too old by a couple months to use Airdrop, and one can only send 5 photos at a time thru email from the Camera Roll or the Photos app.
I finally figured out that the iCloud Photo Library is now the only way to get the photos out of my iDevices and onto my (apparently outdated) iMac.
I don't anticipate using my iDevices as my primary photo creator, so it is not my intention to permanently store photos in the iCloud Photo Library.  But occasionally, I don't have a real camera handy.
Works fine.  Photos end up in the iCloud Library, I go into iCloud on my iMac and download the photos to my iMac download folder, move them to my photos disk, and delete them from the iCloud PL.
Okay. all the blah blah blah is done, now my question to which I can find no answer:
How can I stop the download from automatically opening Adobe Photoshop Elements (or any other viewer/editor) for every photo I download.?
Gets pretty tedious when I download 100 photos and have to wait for them to load into PS before I can close PS and get on with moving the photos to their final resting place.

Answer 1

In direct answer to your question: I don't connect to my iMac with the iDevices and use iPhoto because I stopped using iPhoto in 2007, long before iDevices came into my life and I've just never had a reason to open iPhoto again.  I also like having my photos in folders where I know where they are, and if I recall, importing photos to iPhoto from my own folders ended up placing a second copy in the bowels of iPhoto.  I didn't need duplicate copies.
Until iOS 8 came along, I have been able to export photos thru the iPhoto iOS app via iTunes -- grabbing the folder under the "apps" tab "File Sharing" area in iTunes and placing it wherever I wished.  I seldom if ever used the iPad  for video, but if I did, it was to make a short iMovie and export it via iTunes File Sharing as well. The file sharing option is now gone for photos, although still remains (for the time being) for iMovie.
It never occurred to me to look in iPhoto, so checked out your suggestion, and I do see that you are correct, and connecting my iDevices to my iMac with iPhoto open is assuredly a good way to get both photos and video exported to my own folders.
However, with the iPhoto app File Sharing option gone from the iDevice environment, and no visible way to export my photos/videos to my iMac, as explained previously, I checked out the iCloud Photo Library (beta) option. As I have also stated, I log into iCloud on my iMac (https://www.icloud.com/#photos) and all my photos and videos are sitting there happily waiting for me to do what I will with them.  What I will, is to download them to my iMac and delete them from the iCloud Photo Library.
The process works just fine, except that I do have to double-check that all of the selected items actually did download.  Often one or two little fellows have to be selected again and downloaded. 
Although you have shown me an easier option which I will be using on those future rare occasions when I am without my "real" camera, my question still remains: how do I prevent my editing program (photos) and Quicktime (videos) from opening automatically when I download the respective items.
Since you believe I cannot be using iCloud Photo Library on the Mac, you can't provide the answer I seek.
But I sincerely thank you for providing me with the option I didn't even know existed. I may well turn off the ICloud Photo Library permanently and forget it.  However, it would be more handy if I am traveling, since Photo Stream all by itself only makes photos available to other devices where they can be placed in the Camera Roll as backup.
Thanks again for the reply and the option.