Systems for manifold learning for matting are disclosed, with methods and processes for making and using the same. The embodiments disclosed herein provide a closed form solution for solving the matting problem by a manifold learning technique, Local Linear Embedding. The transition from foreground to background is characterized by color and texture variations, which should be captured in the alpha map. This intuition implies that neighborhood relationship in the feature space should be preserved in the alpha map. By applying Local Linear Embedding using the disclosed embodiments, the local image variations can be preserved in the embedded manifold, which is the resulting alpha map. Without any strong assumption, such as color line model, the disclosed embodiments can be easily extended to incorporate other features beyond RGB color features, such as gradient and texture information.