How do I use icloud with one mac and two iphones

Question

I have just got an iPhone 5.
My wife and I share a macbook pro
My wife has an iphone 4s and uses iCloud to sync photos etc.
I want to use iCloud too, so.....how do we use iCloud so:
- when we each take photos on our phones they sync to our mac
- our contacts sync (can we set preferences on our individual phones so we only get the contacts we want on our iPhones from a shared address book on the mac)
- we have individual calendars
Any advice much appreciated.
Thank you.

Answer 1

If you want to share the same photo stream so both your photos sync to your mac via iCloud you'll have to share the same primary iCloud account.  Set this up in Settings>iCloud on both phones using the same Apple ID, and in System Preferences>iCloud on your Mac; then turn photo Stream to On.  If you want to also using iCloud to sync with your shared Address Book on your Mac, but keep your contacts separate, you'll have to create two contact groups in Address Book on your Mac - one for each of you - and drag copies of the appropriate contacts into each group.  Then turn iCloud syncing for Contacts to on on all your devices.  To view just your own contacts you'll have to open the Contacts app on each of your phones, tap Groups, then check only your own contact group to view.  When you add contacts on either phone, you'll have to add these contacts to the appropriate groups in Address Book on your Mac as you can't manage contact groups on your phone.
If you want to maintain your own calendars, the easiest thing to do is not to syncing your calendar with iCloud.  If you did, your calendars would be merged in iCal on your Mac and the merged calendar would appear on both phones.
The important thing to know is that when you share an iCloud account any data you sync with the account will be merged and appear on all devices sharing the account.  This will happen with your contacts too, but since you already have a shared Address Book on your Mac, it will stay up to date as you change/add/delete contacts on your phones.  And by using contact groups you can filter your view to just your own contacts.