Yes—infrared sensitivity can change tonality in monochrome images because different materials reflect and emit near-IR differently than they reflect visible light. That’s why effects like bright foliage, darker skies, altered skin tones, and dark pupils can happen.

In practice, though, simply removing the IR-cut filter does not automatically make every black-and-white image look strongly “infrared.” In many scenes, visible light still dominates, so the image may look fairly normal. To get a pronounced IR look, you typically use an IR-pass filter, which blocks most visible light and lets infrared dominate.

The main benefits of an IR-sensitive monochrome camera are:

• expanded creative options for infrared footage
• higher overall sensor sensitivity, which can help in very low light
• flexibility: you can add an external IR-cut filter for a more conventional look, or an IR-pass filter for a strong infrared effect

There is no special guarantee that the result will remain “realistic.” Monochrome is already a stylized rendering, and IR adds another layer of tonal shift. Whether it looks natural depends on the subject, lighting, angle, and whether you filter the light going into the lens.