I have many photos now of the great blue heron at Rockville. I decided to make a Low Key photo. I've seen and admired a few wildlife photos that are low key in style. 

I used an adjustment brush in Lightroom and painted the background with negative exposure so that it is black. Around the heron itself, I turned on auto masking and zoomed in. This technique also works well for selective black and white if you so choose. In fact, once you have the background painted you can make virtual copies and do one hi key, low key and selective black and white.